Little over a quarter of parkrun venues in the UK have permission from their landowner ahead of its June 5 comeback

It has been well over a year since parkrun took place for adults in Britain but its planned return next month “hangs in the balance” according to organisers due to only 27% of the 5km events having been given the green light by landowners.

Only 161 of 589 of the venues have permission from local authorities and private landowners to resume early next month. “As things stand,” parkrun said on Friday (May 14), “the return of the free, weekly, community events hangs in the balance, with organisers confirming that the number of permissions must increase significantly over the next seven days for any of the events to return on Saturday 5 June as planned.”

In a strong statement, parkrun added: “Despite legal permission to return and support from Government, Public Health England and Sport England,  a combination of obstacles including misunderstanding the Government’s Roadmap, reluctance, hesitation and unnecessary red tape threatens to delay the return of parkrun indefinitely.

“With all other sports returning, alongside the reopening of indoor dining and hospitality, further roadblocks to parkrun’s return feel unreasonable, with non-response, red tape and internal administrative processes standing in the way of the inclusive, community physical activity.”

Attempts last autumn to bring parkrun back in late October were scuppered by a second wave of the coronavirus which ultimately led to an English lockdown in November. But recently junior parkrun events have successfully returned and parkrun events generally have had permission to return since March, as part of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown.”

A decision over the June 5 return will be made by parkrun on May 21 with fears that if only a small number of events return then they could be overwhelmed with participants.