The team at Hexham Half Marathon has received confirmation the event, formed last year, will receive full road closures on Sunday, July 16, to enable participants to start at the Wentworth Leisure Centre before heading over the town’s iconic bridges.

However, there is a big stipulation. The event needs to attract 700 runners – nearly double of the 400 in its debut year – for Highways England to roll out the temporary closures.

As it stands, should enough people enter, the route will start at Wentworth and head out of town until diverting people towards Corbridge via Anick Road. The run will finish outside of the Egger factory. The half marathon team is also in advanced discussions about including Hexham Abbey on the route.

Organiser Greg Urwin said: “Talks with Northumberland County Council and Highways England have been ongoing for a while now, and the agreement is we can use the revised route if we get 700 runners or more.

“If we can get in and around the Abbey too, that would be great as we could do that stretch and over the bridges in 20 minutes to reduce disruption to traffic.

“The half marathon brings something extra to Tynedale. I see Hexham as the capital of Tynedale so to have it in the town centre and over the main bridges into the town would certainly be ideal.

“We had people coming from all over the world last year and people were staying for the weekend, so it is definitely good for the area.

“It shows the area’s beautiful countryside off, so it would be great to include the town’s rich history. So now we need the public to back us up to make sure it happens.”

Should the event fail to attract the required numbers, the route will remain the same as 2016.

And it was a course which was described by many as extremely challenging, the inclusion of two steep hills making the legs work a little bit extra.

But the majority of the feedback for the the event was hugely positive, many insisting the ‘undulating, hilly’ route was a great one.

Road closures will again be in place, and Urwin said that makes a huge difference to runners. He said: “It lets them run their own race, and I know what it is like when you run events and have cars flying past you. You have to nip in behind people, and it slows you down.”