The founder of Parkrun has warned that the organisation could close forever if it cannot reach agreements with partners including the National Trust.
Parkrun UK, which is part of the charity Parkrun Global, hopes to restart running events in June, more than a year after they were cancelled in response to Covid-19.
However, events cannot restart without permission from the landowners who host them. More than 20 events are held on National Trust properties in England, none of which have yet agreed to reopen to runners, despite repeated requests from Parkrun.
Parkrun said that it needs confirmation from the majority of landowners in the next 10 days, in order for events to return safely on 5 June.
Its events attract an estimated 3m runners and volunteers each week.
No permissions from National Trust
Parkrun announced in April that it hoped to restart running events on the first weekend in June. It wrote to 580 landowners to seek formal permission to return.
Parkrun requested confirmation from landowners by 21 May, but as of yesterday evening only 139 hosts had agreed that runners could return.
The National Trust normally hosts 21 Parkrun events in England, but none of these have yet granted permission for runners to return.
One event in Wales has secured permission.
The National Trust said that discussions were ongoing, and would only say that “hopefully” Parkrun would return on its land in England next month.
A spokesperson told Civil Society News: “We look forward to welcoming Parkrun back to our places, hopefully in June, but our dates may vary to other Parkruns, so we ask that people please check their local National Trust property nearer the time.
“We are having discussions with Parkrun about the return of their events at our places.”
‘Risk losing it forever’
Paul Sinton-Hewitt, Parkrun’s founder and a trustee at Parkrun Global, said that the charity’s future will be in doubt if permissions were not granted on time.
In an email to supporters, Sinton-Hewitt said: “It is essential that the vast majority of 5k events in England return at the same time because, if only some of them did, those events that did open would become overwhelmed with participants.
“This would, of course, create an unsafe environment which we must do everything we can to avoid.”
His email added: “As things continue to improve, and we gain clarity on the appropriateness of a return in England, we must act now and embrace getting back together again, or risk losing it forever.”
Legal threats to councils
Parkrun is also hosted by local authorities all over the country.
In posts on social media which were later deleted, Nick Pearson, the chief executive of Parkrun Global, said that his organisation was looking at a “potential legal challenge via judicial review by Parkrun to local authorities refusing permission for return of events”.
Pearson said that he had seen a response from one local authority suggesting that a decision on Parkrun returning could take six months to process.
Criticism
Parkrun’s leaders admitted last year that they had “come in for criticism” over their decisions on events during the pandemic.
Original plans to return in October had to be shelved when the government changed its guidance on social distancing amid the second wave of Covid-19 cases.
The proportion of Parkrun supporters who did not want to return to events after the pandemic doubled over the autumn, while the proportion saying they could definitely return fell from 80% to 71%, according to a live YouTube Q&A in September.
Parkrun did not respond to a request for comment.
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