Eastbourne Parkrun start date delayed

Parkrun UK announced the planned restart of the 5k events tomorrow (Saturday, June 5) has had to be postponed.

There was a question of whether all sites would get landowner permission, and now although more than 250 events have this – including Eastbourne Parkrun in Shinewater Park – it still isn’t enough for the event to restart.

This is to avoid overwhelming those that have been given the go-ahead.

Three million people are registered to Parkrun UK in England alone, so opening up a smaller number of events is ‘not viable’, according to organisers.

Parkrun UK will now target June 26 to resume all 5k events across England. A decision will be made for this new date on June 11.

Nick Pearson, the global CEO of Parkrun said, “We will continue to work hard with landowners over the coming weeks to secure the permissions needed to return at the end of June.

“We are incredibly grateful to all of the landowners who have granted events permission to return so far, and for the groundswell of support for Parkrun over recent days.

“Although it is disappointing not to be able to return on June 5, we are still optimistic that we can return Parkrun events to nearly 600 communities across England very soon.

“We will do everything we can to ensure events restart on June 26.”