Runners taking part in the Peterborough Park Run at Ferry Meadows pictured in 2014.Runners taking part in the Peterborough Park Run at Ferry Meadows pictured in 2014.
Runners taking part in the Peterborough Park Run at Ferry Meadows pictured in 2014.

Organisers working to restart Peterborough’s popular Parkrun

Organisers are working to restart Peterborough’s popular Parkrun as nationally the organisation struggles to bring back events across the country.

Popular with runners at all levels the Peterborough Parkrun usually takes place at Ferry Meadows Country Park with a junior Parkrun at Central Park.

No date has yet been set for Parkrun’s return in Peterborough but a spokesman at Ferry Meadows said it hopes to see the return of the run soon.

Nationally Parkrun has announced it plans to make an announcement on the future of events as it struggles to re-establish permission to stage runs.

In a statement last week Parkrun said: “Currently only 161 of 589 5k events have landowner permission to return.

“As things stand, 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 June 5, as planned.

“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.

“Parkrun UK must make a decision two weeks ahead of the planned return on whether restarting events on 5 June is viable.

“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.

“Parkrun events have had permission to return since March, as part of step one 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.”

A spokesperson for Nene Park Trust said: “ Across the country Parkrun venues are busy working out the safety and logistics of restarting these events.

“We are currently working with Parkrun on bringing back the event to Ferry Meadows, and just need to finalise the details on social distancing to ensure the safety of all participants.

“We are waiting for documentation from Park Run regarding their social distancing measures to keep both the runners and other Park visitors safe, particularly at the start and end. We need to have this in place before we can restart the sessions.”