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Armed Forces Day: ultimate travel and transport guide

4:30 pm, Friday, 6th June 2025 - 52 seconds ago

General

North East Lincolnshire Council is urging people to plan their traffic and travel arrangements ahead of the Armed Forces Day celebrations at the end of June this year in Cleethorpes.

The weekend, organised by the Armed Forces Major Events Team, will start with the community day on Friday 27 June, including the Community Carnival in the early evening. The main Armed Forces Day, to celebrate all our armed forces and their families will be across Saturday and Sunday.

There will be the fantastic Armed Forces parade through town, from Grant St to Brighton Slipway (Saturday only), flying activity centred on Ross Castle, the service village in the Boating Lake area, and displays of military vehicles in Meridian Showground.

The Community Stage also be active across the weekend, and The Big Wheel, will be in the leisure centre car park. Regular traders will also be supporting the weekend on Kingsway, Boating Lake and Meridian Showground.

There will also be fireworks to end the Saturday night.

In order to support the fantastic event weekend, there will be changes to access, including road closures, across the town over the weekend to help make the event safe for everyone.

Park and Ride!

New for this year – Park and Ride facilities, with drop off at the Cleethorpes Memorial Hall, will be in place with special buses servicing them – these are at Grimsby Institute (postcode: DN34 5BQ) and at Origin Way on Europarc (postcode: DN37 9TZ). Note, Europarc Park and Ride will start from 9am. Car parks will close at midnight each day.

Buses from these sites will be from the existing stops on the main roads and will run approximately every 15 minutes at peak times.

At Cleethorpes, buses from Europarc (Service no X20) will use Grimsby Road stops, and buses from GIFHE (Service no 3) will use Clee Road stops.

Additional out of town parking will be signposted at Orwell Street (DN31 3HB), Clee Fields (DN32 9SW) and Toll Bar (DN36 4RZ), these are serviced by the regular bus service.

Park and Ride buses will be in operation from 4pm on Fri to close of Sunday. A single journey fare will be £1.50. But get together with some friends or family, and you can get a group ticket for up to 5 people of any age for just £8 (unlimited travel throughout the day for everyone in the group as long as they travel together). Concessions are still in operation.

Getting around the event

Also new for this year, given the longer footprint of the event, is a shuttle service provided by vintage buses, between Cleethorpes leisure centre and Meridian Showground. The service will run from 12noon to 5pm on Friday, 10am to 1pm, and 3pm to 6pm on Saturday, and 10am to 6pm on Sunday. Donations will be accepted on the buses.

Public car parks

  • Central prom will be closed to all traffic, except emergency vehicles and the Land Train, all weekend (from 10pm on Thursday 26 June to 11.59pm on Sunday 29 June inclusive).
  • Knoll / Civic Offices / Sea View Street car parks will be closed all weekend (from Friday 27 June to Sunday 29 June inclusive)
  • Grant Street car park – closed all day Friday 27 June, to support the Community Carnival, but will be open on Saturday and Sunday as normal.
  • Cleethorpes Leisure Centre – will be closed to all users except Lincs Inspire pass holders and Blue Badge holders from 10pm Tuesday 24 June to 11.59pm Monday 30 June.
  • Thrunscoe Land (Boating Lake car park) – Bays to the left of the entrance and bays beyond the barrier on the right of the entrance will be closed from Friday 27 June to Sunday 29 June inclusive. A small car park area will be reserved for Blue Badge holders near the entrance.

All other car parks in and around the resort will be open as usual.

ROAD CLOSURES

Full closures all weekend – Friday 27 June to Sunday 29 June – (apart from emergency vehicle access and business loading where appropriate):

  • Alexandra Road / High Cliff Road between the junction with Yarra Road and the junction with Brighton Street.
  • Seaview Street – Alexandra Road to Cambridge Street (including New Road)
  • Knoll Street between the junction of Cambridge Street and the junction with Alexandra Road.
  • There will be no traffic exit from Humber Street or North Street to High Cliff Road for the weekend.

Additionally, there are several specific day closures to allow for the main event set up and operation.

Friday (27 June): Carnival evening

The Community Carnival will travel form up in Grant St Car Park during the day and on Sea Road from 5pm. It will start at 6pm and travel along the following route: Station Road, Grant St, Alexandra Road, High Cliff Road, Kingsway. It will finish at the Leisure Centre.

There will be temporary closures in place for the duration of the Carnival procession which will be lifted as soon as practically possible:

  • Station Road (High St – Station car park access) closed from around 5.30pm until carnival has passed. Access to the railway station is via Poplar Road, however there is a complete closure when the parade sets off for a short period.
  • Carnival start to Armed Forces Gate area: High St (from Cross Street to Sea Road), Sea Road (note, this means there is no access to, or from, North Prom for the duration of the closure), Market St (from Dolphin St to Sea Road) and Alexandra Road will all be closed at 5pm until after the carnival has passed.
  • Roads that access Alexandra Road between Sea Road and Yarra Road will be temporarily closed off to allow the carnival to pass safely. These will be reopened after the carnival has passed for the evening, but will be closed off again on Saturday morning for the military parades.
  • Alexandra Road (from Yarra Road), High Cliff Road, Knoll St and Sea View Street remain closed.
  • All roads that access High Cliff Road and Kingsway (between Humber Street and Cromwell Road) will be closed from approximately 6pm to approximately 8pm to allow the parade to pass.
  • Kings Road, from Cromwell Road to the junction with Chichester Road will be closed from approximately 6pm to approximately 8pm. Please note, this also means that there is no access to, or from, the leisure centre car park during this period.
  • Cromwell Road (from Howlett Road to the Leisure Centre) will be closed except for resident access from approximately 6pm to approximately 8pm.

Saturday (28 June)

Road and car park closures will be put in place to enable the parades to go ahead safely. There are three elements to the parade this year: motorbikes, military vehicles and serving and veterans walking parade. In a change from the usual early afternoon parade, this year, the parades start at 11am on Saturday morning.

The parades will form up between Grant St, Station Road, Sea Road (note, this means there is no access to, or from, North Prom for the duration of the closure), and High Street, and will be brought together at the top of Alexandra Road. These areas will be closed off from approximately 10am on Saturday morning until after the parades have left.

All roads leading on to Alexandra Road will be blocked off during the parade to make sure participants are safe.

All roads leading on to High Cliff Road and Kingsway will also be closed for the Saturday only at the Kingsway end.

Alexandra Road (from Yarra Road), High Cliff Road, Knoll St, New Road, Sea View Street closed through the whole weekend.

TOW AWAY ZONES

There will be tow away zones in operation over the weekend which will be clearly advertised. Please do not park in these areas as your car may be removed.

ON STREET PARKING BAYS

Parking bays in the following areas will be suspended.

All weekend (Friday 27 June to approx. 6pm Sunday 29 June)

  • All areas within the closed roads.
  • St Peter’s Avenue – no parking on western side between Highgate and High St. No parking from Albert Road to Highgate.

Friday 27 June and Saturday 28 June: All parking bays on Alexandra Road.

BUS DIVERSION ROUTES

Stagecoach services that normally travel along Alexandra Road, High Cliff Rd and Kingsway (Services 3,4,5,6,8,9,10) will be diverted through an alternative route, missing out the closed roads listed above. Stagecoach can advise on planned diversion routes.

HGV ACCESS TO NORFOLK LANE

The weight limit on Poplar Road will be temporarily suspended to allow HGV access to businesses on Norfolk Lane.

Local rail service

At the moment, there are no engineering works registered on railway company websites. For rail services, check out: www.nationalrail.co.uk

To keep up to date on the details of the weekend as they are announced, visit www.armedforcesnortheastlincolnshire.co.uk or the Armed Forces Cleethorpes Facebook page.

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