THE Olympic torch will pass through Ealing and have a coveted overnight stay in the borough as part of a town celebration next summer.

London 2012 officials confirmed the flame would start its journey on July 24 in Kingston and travel via Richmond, Hounslow and Hillingdon before arriving in Ealing on the same day.

Walpole Park, in the town centre, will be one of just six road show stage-points along the route, with the council planning to hold a party in the park to further light up the occasion.

The torch will be carried across the nation during a 70-day relay in the weeks leading up to the Olympics.

Leading British Olympians are to feature among the relay runners, while the Games organisers and relay sponsors Lloyds TSB, Samsung and Coca-Cola will announce the names of inspirational local residents, nominated to carry the torch, next year.

London 2012's organising committee LOCOG claims 95 per cent of the British population will be within ten miles of the Olympic flame as it makes its 8,000 mile journey around the United Kingdom.

They have also revealed the flame will travel by a range of transport modes, including a sidecar on the Isle of Man, home of the famous TT Races, the Alum Bay chairlift on the Isle of Wight and a mountain railway to the summit of Snowdon.

In addition, there are plans for the torch to fly across the Eden Project in a hot air balloon, to travel across Loch Ness in a boat and to fly down a zip wire off the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle.

It will also journey on horseback, bicycle, tram, rowing boat and steam train.

As expected, some of Britain's postcard landmarks will feature heavily, with the flame visiting the summit of Snowdon, the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, the Needles off the Isle of Wight, Stonehenge, Durdle Door on the Jurassic Coast and St Andrew's, the home of golf, in Scotland.

"I’m delighted that the Olympic torch relay will take the 2012 Games to almost every corner of the UK and that we have achieved our ambition to take the flame to within an hour’s journey of 95 per cent of the population," said London 2012 chairman Seb Coe.

"Now, everyone is invited to plan their welcome and find out where they can go to be part of this historic occasion. The Olympic Games are coming to you as the Olympic flame gives our people and places their moment to shine."