ParkRun to be charged a fee for using the park.

[StuffEverywhere]

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!

I agree with pp. if everyone who went that could afford to pay £1, paid £1, there wouldn't be an issue. Paths do cost money to maintain and 100s of runners using them at once on a regular basis is bound to incur more maintenance than if they weren't running.

Agree with everyone saying pay a £1.

Ours is in a "country park" and it does grate on me a bit , all the traffic over small paths and grassland that is just not geared up for hundreds of people running through it.

A £1 is a really fair compromise.

parkrun was set up as a free run suppprted by volunteers to help out. The fundamental principle is that everyone is able to join in with no barriers, so they won't be charging a £1 or anything as that would be exclusive. That's my understanding anyway. A free club using free facilities. Once that original purpose has to stop, the whole thing will probably have to fold. Such a shame for those who need it particularly for health reasons, or social reasons.

I'll keep going to mine until it's stopped. If stopped, I'll just go and run there like I do during the week. It'll not make any difference to me overall.

Wheres come back and report if you go?

It is the attitude if councils.. make people pay..

OTOH, people are forced to pay to use car parks ... because providing them costs money and the user should pay for the facility... so it is logical that people using another park should also pay...

This is copied from another thread but explains quite well:
"There had been lots of talks Melanie, including a suggestion that they charge for the car park like other councils do but Little Stoke council wanted to charge parkrun directly (and solely, no-one else using the park would be charged. This included the local junior football team who turn up en mass once a week too) and as the rule is that parkrun has to be free, that meant that there is no way that the event can continue once the council insisted."

We do have to pay to park, so maybe ours will get to stay. You can just see that won't be enough though, once councils grab hold of the concept of paying to run.

And a £1 a week x3 would price me out of the market currently.

Yes, it's families who would suffer as well. Many couldn't afford £4 or £5 weekly.

Another frustrating aspect is that the vote was originally 5:4 with three abstentions so wouldn't have counted. One of the abstentions then voted making it 6:4 with two abstentions. So still only 6/12.

Park run is a commercial company making money out of runners/shops/sponsors ... They should pay same as other organisations... It is them that is making a fuss about runners have to pay...that's not quite the picture ... They should pay a fee /charge ..then it's up to them how they reclaim it....
Am not against people running but organised mass running is not the same as individuals running or going to have the same impact on the area...

Just checked the course page and the juniors is currently going ahead tomorrow! Woohoo! Kids are thrilled. PBs all round I reckon.

Council budgets have been slashed to the point they can barely meet their Duties (I know this is a parish council do they won't have social care needs to meet, but the amount they get will have been cut as well). I suspect we'll see more & more of this sort of revenue raising.

I agree it's a shame but it's a consequence of massive cuts to local council finances. Would I rather that parkrun was charged to protect core services? Yes. Would I prefer that council budgets were higher so these sorts of decisions didn't have to be made? Yes again. But I didn't vote for the current lot in Westminster.

Yes all the volunteers make vast sums of money.

I'm wondering how the local cafe is feeling. Must be a huge drop in revenue for them.

Wheres, I hope you realise that you are now the official Mumsnet reporter for this issue. Please tell us what happened as soon as you're back..

The 5k is not on today. But I suspect the kids 2k will be swamped tomorrow (they don't want to charge them - how about that for inconsistency). I may go past later and have a look to see how many have turned up just for a jog! Or I may just go and interview people for my mumsnet report. I'll take a notebook.

Youth football clubs are run by volunteers and help kids stay fit and healthy. It would be great if they could get football pitches free, then they wouldn't have to pay for hiring pitches (www.maidstone.gov.uk/residents/sports-and-leisure/sports-pitches-and-courts), and thus would encourage more people to play football.

I think the problem is that the park runs have become so popular, so are causing wear and tear.

£1 isn't a lot to ask, and maybe kids could go free, making it affordable for families.

Park run is run by volunteers and helps people stay fit and healthy. Lots of kids do the 5k.

I've seen clips of this on the local news - there were a lot of people spreading out beyond the tarmac onto the grass. I guess it must be doing some damage? Perhaps it also affects their public liability insurance premium having a regular large event in the park? You have to assume there are some extra costs being incurred by the council due to the run. Should the average tax payer cover this? The council should publish what the extra costs are each year due to the run, then the parkrun organisers decide how to cover this. £1 perperson per run seems a lot - £600 a month? Too much.

No one only walks the distance at our local Parkruns or if they do their times never show up on the results' pages. (or it's manic powerwalking Olympics style).

How does the ParkRun organisation raise money to pay for the indemnity insurance? Do they have any other costs, like for numbers, safety pins.. do they hand out bottles or medals or stickers or other things for free?

ooh, never mind, found my own answers. Sponsors & they skim off subs from running clubs that have actual subs.

I imagine they'll lose some sponsors & matching funding arrangements if pRun charges directly.

The volunteers may not make money but the organisation does...

They seem to have paid employees at senior level, couldn't function without... As a non-profit company they must file annual public accounts (I think?) Would be easy enough to find out if someone is truly personally profitting.

Company Number: 07289574

They appear to have reserves of less than £100k so unlikely to be personally profiting.

Our local council doesn't charge for park run, but charges £2 per hour for parking at the park which gets used for repair. This seems much fairer - you obviously don't pay for parking if you walk or bus or whatever. .

I could get on board with a parking charge.

So turns out Parkrun is a private company paying a dozen directors salaries, turning over several hundred thousand pounds a year. Seriously they are expecting local taxpayers to subsidise their company and complaining when asked to contribute to the maintenance of the facilities they use. Are people really so blind?

Its like me starting a 'free for all' swimming company, paying myself and my friends a salary from its profits, expecting volunteers to organise the swimming for free and then complaining when the swimming pools asks the company to contribute to using the pool.

Guess we should take money out of the care for the elderly to pay for more gardeners then! Or should Parkrun use some of the money they get from Fitbit, Three, Vitality, Intersport, Aqa, etc to contribute to maintenance of the facilities they use.