More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
A number of Parkrun venues in Kent are still waiting for the green light from landowners for them to go ahead despite pressure from Westminster for the free weekly 5k runs to resume.
This week, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick and Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden wrote to all councils in the UK urging them to permit the runs.
Organised outdoor sport activity has been allowed since March 29 after the easing of Covid restrictions but the popular Saturday morning runs are yet to restart due to reluctance from councils and other landowners.
Donna Carr is the Parkrun ambassador for Kent, where there are 23 Parkruns. She said: "Most of our runs in Kent have got permission from the landowners and are ready to go.
"All of our volunteers and all of our runners are keen to get back as soon as possible and running in the outdoors must surely be one of the safest activities."
Ms Carr said, so far, Tonbridge, Leybourne Lakes, the Leas at Minster on Sheppey and the Sittingbourne runs all had permission to restart.
Kent venues waiting for final sign-offs included Ashford, Folkestone, the Great Lines in Gillingham, Lullingstone, Pegwell Bay, Shorne Woods and Whitstable, though she expected many to receive permission before the hoped for re-start date.
In Ashford, the Parkrun is hosted at Victoria Park, which is owned by Ashford Borough Council, whose spokesman said: "The Ashford Safety Advisory Group is waiting on information from Parkrun as part of the application to restart the Victoria Park event."
Ms Carr, who is also the director of the Maidstone Parkrun, explained how the landowner issue was often not as straightforward as it might seem. "In Maidstone the situation is a little complicated.
"We start in the Kent Life park at Allington, run along the Medway river bank and into Whatman Park. That's three separate landowners: Kent Life, Kent County Council and Maidstone council.
"KCC and Maidstone have given us permission to resume. Kent Life hasn't said no, but they just want to go over a few details about social distancing with us. We have a meeting later this week with them.
"So we are all hoping to return on June 26, but it is not definite that we will do so."
Fears that the resumption of some Parkruns and not others has also led to a delay in the resumption of the runs, which have not been held since they were cancelled in March last year.
"The organisation has decided that we need at least 80% of clubs nationally to restart, otherwise if some do and some don't, there is a danger that runners will travel from a venue where there is no run to one where there is, which could potentially overwhelm it," Ms Carr explained.
"Parkrun tourism is actually quite a thing. People do regularly travel to a degree just to try a new venue and they would certainly travel if their own local run wasn't taking place.
"It would be no good for example if all the Kent clubs were ready to open but the London boroughs were not.
"We would certainly get runners from London travelling to us, and some London runs have thousands of runners."
It is understood that 250 locations out of 589 in England had given permission to run on June 5 but this was not enough to prevent overcrowding and people travelling from other areas to join in.
Dartford's Central Park and Dartford Heath events have been given the green light to return by the council.
Council Leader Jeremy Kite said: “I’m delighted that we have been able to give permission for the Parkruns to restart on council land. The organisers are great people and I trust them to start events again when they think it’s the right time."
