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Original poster

ParkRun to be charged a fee for using the park.

84 replies

StuffEverywhere · 14/04/2016 19:05

Little Stoke Council votes for ParkRun to pay a maintenance charge.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-36041059

I can't believe it.

I run at a local ParkRun and volunteer for a junior ParkRun and think that these events bring the best out of people. They make people healthier and happier, and they make parks lively and full of energy on a Saturday morning. Councils should support them, not the other way around!

OP posts:
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5
nousernames · 15/04/2016 10:18

I completely agree. I can't understand the logic in this at all - our local parkrun is very well supported.

Neverknowingly · 15/04/2016 13:32

There was no way I would EVER have started running without our local Parkrun or that I would have got my (then) 4 yr old DS to run. He sucks at sports and this is easy, fun, low pressure and we love it. We take up a tiny circuit of a huge park, get in no-one's way, visit the café afterwards providing custom and are out of the park by 10.15 long before it starts to get busy.

cdtaylornats · 15/04/2016 14:21

I can see where the council are coming from if other organised sports pay to use the park. Why should the local footballers pay and runners not?

Original poster
StuffEverywhere · 15/04/2016 14:42

Because you are not invited to local footballers matches. You are invited to Parkrun. Everyone is. Some people are walking, if they can't run - the whole 5km. But everyone is welcome.

Also local footballers make money (through club memberships etc). Parkrun doesn't.

Parkrun makes parks fun and interesting at a time when they are mostly empty! They are doing us all a favour! For free.

OP posts:
BreakingDad77 · 15/04/2016 16:26

They should re-route the runs to avoid erosion or damage if thats the problem or even mobilise volunteer track improvement.

The green spaces are there to be used, surely thats the whole point!!!

urbanfox1337 · 15/04/2016 16:32

Ummm football teams are invited to play on local parks, they are not forced to. And everyone is invited to come and watch. My local DC's team does not make money, anything raised is used to cover costs. Parkrun is causing more than just normal residential usage maintenance costs, so why shouldn't they contribute?

My family has taken part in all sorts of activities over the years, from scouts to karate to WI, all of which were run by volunteers and all of which had to pay facility costs, at a local church hall, campsite, library or wherever. What other local adult volunteer groups gets free facilities these days?

Neverknowingly · 15/04/2016 21:13

Scouts, Karate and WI all charge membership subscription fees - parkrun does not. They charge these fees to cover the hall hire etc. Also at our parkrun we pay to use the carpark - as noted above at a time when very few people would otherwise be there, appreciate not all will be like this. The point is there is no subscription or fee and this has without doubt encouraged people who would otherwise never have dreamed of running to get out and try it - lots of the local running clubs (also free eg sweatshop etc) which run beginners C25k etc use parkrun as their graduation run. Park run ask for no extra facilities, no courts are needed, no nets, no markings just the open space.

Parkrun offered to get their volunteers doing litter pick ups etc in the parks - this was rejected.

Plus I hate this we have to pay so therefore so should you sour grapes attitude. What about dog walkers and either the costs of cleaning up after the dogs (not all owners are responsible) or emptying the extra poo bins? Maintaining the children's play equipment?

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 15/04/2016 21:22

urbanfox I run around my park by myself during the week. Sometimes I do the same run with the parkrun on a Saturday. Why should I pay on a Saturday and not on the other days? It's my local free park for mine and everybody elses enjoyment.

Wheresthattomoibabber · 15/04/2016 21:23

This is my local park run. It's on tarmac which I thought was pretty hardwearing. They clear up dog poo and sweep the huge amounts of water that gather on one part of the path in wet weather into the drain. On one occasion, they called an ambulance for a pedestrian who had collapsed in a deserted part of the park. My children do the Sunday junior park run. The atmosphere is amazing. I honestly think if everyone saw what it was actually like they would be very pleasantly surprised. It was a gorgeous free thing in a sea of capitalist crap.

I'm really sad about it and the publicity surrounding it. The kids are upset too. Big part of our week gone.

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 15/04/2016 21:30

I think it's awful Whereathat the jobsworths sucking the joy out of the country. "the general public enjoying their local park for a short time in a happy, healthy, innocent way?' "Oh fuck em, we'd better put a stop to that"

It beggars belief, it really does.

Can you go somewhere else close by?

Wheresthattomoibabber · 15/04/2016 21:33

There are two other junior ones that are about 20 minutes drive away. I take my friends children as she lives even closer than I do and it will no longer be practical in terms of time as the other ones are in the opposite direction.

southeastastra · 15/04/2016 21:37

i suppose it's all wear and tear, was it a tory led council by chance?

HermioneWeasley · 15/04/2016 21:40

Parks are supposed to have people running in them! It's mad

Wheresthattomoibabber · 15/04/2016 21:44

I suspect the park will have rather more people running there than ever before tomorrow. Not sure whether to go down and support or stay away and maintain dignity. Or do a different park run on Sunday or do a 5k tomorrow but can't keep up with the kids and that can't run alone on the 5k.

Wheresthattomoibabber · 15/04/2016 21:46

Actually the comparison with football teams is really starting to grate. They play on the grass for an hour and a half in studded boots. Park run is run on the tarmac in soft trainers and the majority finish in about 30 mins (12 for the junior one). It really is not the same thing.

Haggisfish · 15/04/2016 21:46

Our local one has at least 500 runners a week, though. That's a lot of footfall in one go. I do see the council's point, and don't understand why park run refused to apply for a lottery grant to fund it.

Haggisfish · 15/04/2016 21:47

And our local one isn't on Tarmac.

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 15/04/2016 21:47

Wheres it's been cancelled because they are worried about 1000's turning up.

Wheresthattomoibabber · 15/04/2016 21:55

I know. I suspect a lot of people will turn up to run anyway though.

I can understand it would cause wear and tear on grass with 500 people running at once. But this one is on tarmac and averages 150 people.

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 15/04/2016 22:16

I don't think that the numbers matter tbh. If councils want to start charging everyone £1 for a half hour jog, then they need a turnstile and should charge dog walkers for walking their dogs every day for an hour, or parents with kids on bikes cutting up paths and grass etc. Its a sorry state of affairs.

urbanfox1337 · 15/04/2016 23:02

Its one thing to go for a jog at the local park with a few friends. But once you start organising a group that pulls in hundreds of people from surrounding areas you are going beyond what the local tax payers can be reasonably expected to fund.

So stop being so selfish pay a subscription fee and stop demanding something for nothing. It's a running club, and you are sponging off the taxpayer.

Samcro · 15/04/2016 23:06

the thing is.....councils are strapped for cash.
they are having to pay for up keep fro the places these groups are using.
and making cuts to vital service's for the most vulnerable.

surely paying 1 pound will not break the bank.

southeastastra · 15/04/2016 23:10

that's the thing samcro and from my experience the park runners aren't usually short of a few quid

Samcro · 15/04/2016 23:11

yeah.....I know. I went to our local park one weekend.....was taken over by the "its free" people.

southeastastra · 15/04/2016 23:33

i ran a free (from the council) kids event that was worth alot more than the park run and it all got cut years ago.

in a great utopia there is alot that should be run free but it's just not visable

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