There will be massive disappointment for Kent’s runners and walkers as the much anticipated return of parkrun was delayed.
It had been hoped the incredibly popular 5km events that happen at 9am on a Saturday morning would return on Saturday 5th June, however the organisers have been forced to postpone the return to at least Saturday 26th June.
The events team at parkrun HQ have been waiting on landowners across the country to give their permission to use land that parkruns take part on, but without the go ahead from a large number, they have been left with no other option than to delay the return after being without the events for almost 15 months.
A statement from parkrun spells out why they can’t return on Saturday 5th June. It reads:
“Today parkrun UK has announced that it has been forced to delay the planned reopening of 5k events in England on Saturday 5 June.
Although more than 250 events do have landowner permission to return, this falls far short of the critical mass needed to prevent overwhelming those that have been given the go ahead.
With more than three million registered parkrunners across England, and around 300,000 people taking part on a typical weekend, opening a small subset of parkruns is not viable.
In ongoing discussions, where landowners were withholding permission, parkrun organisers sought clarification on whether permission would be granted for a later date.
With a number of landowners responding positively, parkrun UK will now target Saturday 26 June to resume all 5k events across England. A decision will be made regarding the go ahead for this new date on Friday 11 June.
A full list of events that currently have permission can be found here
Nick Pearson, parkrun Global CEO said:
“We will continue to work hard with landowners over the coming weeks to secure the permissions needed to return at the end of June. We are incredibly grateful to all of the landowners who have granted events permission to return so far, and for the groundswell of support for parkrun over recent days.
Although it is disappointing not to be able to return on 5 June, we are still optimistic that we can return parkrun events to nearly 600 communities across England very soon. We will do everything we can to ensure events restart on 26 June.”
The three week delay comes as many permission requests got caught up in unnecessary red tape and lengthy internal bureaucracy at a local level, despite widespread support nationally from the UK government, MPs on both sides of Parliament, DCMS and Sport England; and amidst a changing lockdown landscape across the UK that this week saw the reopening of pubs, restaurants and other indoor hospitality.
Many high profile supporters joined the rallying cry for the inclusive, physical activity community events to resume, without any further delays.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has called on London borough councils and other landowners to join him in supporting the return of parkrun, as the “City Hall team stand ready to work with London Councils, the parkrun team, and volunteer organisers to make this a reality”.
Permissions must increase significantly between now and the new targeted restart. parkrun has had legal permission to return from March, as part of Step 1 of the Government’s Roadmap out of lockdown.
Operating under a government approved COVID-19 Framework, and with significant success restarting the junior 2k event series, as well as the vital need for people to be active and social outdoors, the time is now right for the return of Saturday morning 5k events.”
Of all the Kent parkrun events, only the following currently have permission to return from landowners:
Canterbury parkrun
Cyclopark parkrun
Dartford Heath parkrun
Dartford parkrun
Royal Tunbridge Wells parkrun
Sittingbourne parkrun
Squerryes Winery parkrun
The Leas parkrun, Minster
Walmer and Deal seafront parkrun