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Sefton Council is reminding golfers about the money-saving prices for late round tickets at its Bootle and Southport Courses.

Twilight green fees kick in from 4pm at both Bootle Golf Course when green fees reduce from up to £16 to just £8.50.

At Southport Golf Links prices drop from as much as £18 to £12 from 4pm and are then reduced even further, to £8, from 6pm.

Cllr Ian Moncur, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, said:  “Our Twilight prices represent great value and mean that golfers can save as much as £7.50 per round at Bootle and £10 at Southport during the long sunny summer evenings.

“Plus, when we re-opened in May, in line with the Government’s coronavirus guidelines, we held our green fees at 2019 prices so golfers playing later on in the day can take advantage of double savings.”

Whatever time they want to play, people wanting to book their tee slot by telephoning Bootle Golf Course on 0151 928 1371 or Southport Links on 01704 535286. Slots are available every 10 minutes from 8am to 7pm.

Cllr Ian Moncur added: “Bootle has recently been described as a ‘a great course with plenty of sand traps, great greens and fairways’ and ‘Very good for the money!’ on the golfing website Golfshake.com. And Southport was described by one TripAdvisor reviewer last year as the best municipal golf course they had played on.

“So, I would recommend anyone wanting to enjoy a value-for-money round of golf goes a long and takes advantage of a Twilight ticket soon.”

Find out more about Sefton Council’s Bootle and Southport Links courses.

Young people across the Sefton are being asked to submit colourful drawings, paintings, and designs to brighten up the Borough’s two walk through COVID-19 test sites in Bootle and Southport.

Both of Sefton’s walk-through Local Testing Sites, which greatly improve access to COVID-19 tests for people who do not have access to a car, are now open. They are located opposite Bootle Town Hall and at Southport Town Hall with access via the Corporation Street entrance.

As has been reported on national radio, Sefton’s two walk-through sites are the first in Merseyside, and will be in place for several months. Each has between four and eight testing bays which can each test up to three people an hour. Users will be asked to self-swab when attending.

There is on-street pay-and-display parking nearby for those people travelling to the Local Testing Sites by car.

Find out more about the walk-through testing process.

To get a test at one of the centres, people first need to book a test online at www.nhs.uk/coronavirus or by calling 119 or Sefton Council’s Contact Centre on 0345 140 0845.

Cllr Ian Moncur, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing said: “It’s great that Sefton has these two Local Test Centres to enable more people to access these vital tests that tell them if they are positive for coronavirus and whether they need to isolate.

“But they look a bit dull at the moment and we wanted to make them a bit more welcoming, which is where Sefton’s young people come in.

“Send us your colourful paintings, drawings, designs and masterpieces and we will use them to brighten up the surroundings for people going along for a test and the people working in the centres.”

Completed artwork can be posted to Sefton Council, Bootle Town Hall, Oriel Road, L20 7AE, or sent by email to communications@sefton.gov.uk to be printed out. To make sure we don’t miss them, please title email contributions ‘Test Art’.

There are also Mobile Testing Units at sites in Sefton most days through August. 

Sefton Council has now completed the safe re-opening of its 100 play areas after they were closed as part of nationwide “lockdown” restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19.

In line with Government guidance, the Council’s Green Sefton team has carried out risk assessments for each site and applied the guidance to minimise the risk of coronavirus infection.

The inspections were also used to identify any faulty or damaged equipment, which was repaired, removed or disabled before re-opening. Just two play areas remain closed because equipment needs repair to make it safe.

Children visiting play areas will have to be accompanied and supervised by parents, guardians or carers while using play areas. Groups should not enter play areas and each child should have only one family member accompanying them.

People are expected to maintain a two-metre social distance from anyone outside their family or support bubble. And they are being asked to restrict visits to half an hour at busy times and not return for two hours, to allow everyone to have a turn.

Parents, guardians and carers should ensure their children’s hands are sanitised before and after using any play apparatus. They should also clean or sanitise seats and handles before using the equipment.

People are asked to avoid touching their faces and to cough or sneeze into a tissue or arm when a tissue is not available to prevent risk of infection. Food and drink is not permitted and visitors should take their litter home with them or place it in a litter bin away from the play area.

New signage has been erected at all playgrounds to remind users of the measures designed to keep everyone safe. A limited amount of equipment such as certain swings will have to remain out of use for the time being to enable people to maintain social distancing.

Cllr Ian Moncur, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing said: “I am pleased that all of our 100 or so play areas are now open again and please to hear our Green Sefton team report that people are complying with the measures we have put in place to help keep them safe.

“Coronavirus is still with us and our ongoing priority is to protect all our residents, which is why we have carried out this thorough process to open our play areas safely in line with the Government’s guidelines.”

People should not use not use play areas if they or anyone they live with has symptoms of COVID-19 or has tested positive or if they have been advised to isolate by the NHS Test and Trace service.

Find out more about Sefton’s parks and greenspaces.