Parkrun at risk of being delayed in England again

Approximately 300,000 people take part in Parkrun each weekend

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Organisers of the global running event, Parkrun, have said there is a risk of its return in England being delayed for a second time.

The news comes after organisers first announced they had been forced to delay the reopening due to a problem with permissions from landowners on 21 May.

While 250 events were granted permission, the figure fell short of the “critical mass”, with organisers deciding that opening a small subset of Parkruns would not be viable. There are a total of 587 events across England.

At the time, Parkrun said 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”.

The 5k runs were set to return on 5 June but were then rescheduled to return at the end of the month. Now, organisers say they are at risk of being delayed for a second time.

“Whilst we remain optimistic for 5k Parkrun events in England to return on the new planned restart date of Saturday 26 June, there is still a way to go,” a Parkrun spokesperson told The Independent.

They said permissions are still coming in, however, there are still “significant pockets of England where permissions have not yet been granted”.

This “does currently pose a risk to the restart of all events”, the spokesperson said.

They added: “We are still seeing inconsistencies in decision making, and although we are at almost 80 per cent of events with permissions to return, we are yet to achieve the safe critical mass required to confirm a restart”. 

In England alone, approximately 300,000 people participate in Parkrun, with 5k runs taking place every weekend before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Organisers said they are optimistic that more permissions will be granted throughout the course of this week. A final decision on whether to delay for a second time will be made on 11 June.