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"Bristol ParkRun joggers face being charged to use paths"

(109 posts)
  • Started 8 years ago by Stickman
  • Latest reply from Stickman

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  1. Dave
    Member

    +1 on the above. I don't have any special insight on what park run is like to deal with when you cross swords with them, I can easily believe whatever people say about it.

    It seems to me that they're arguing from a position of considerable high ground though.

    Let's imagine that Spokes arranged a weekly "cycle bus" style thing for kids to get to school. However many kids took part and put some kind of strain on public resources, I fundamentally disagree that they should be surcharged. It doesn't really matter if someone in Spokes is getting a retainer or Specialised are chucking in some sponsorship.

    The way this has been discussed in the wider world, you'd think we've forgotten that 2/3 of adults in this country are clinically overweight...

    Posted 8 years ago #

  2. Stickman
    Member

    define "massive salary"

    Usual definition is "more than I currently earn"

    Posted 8 years ago #

  3. Morningsider
    Member

    The difference is, kids have to get to school and the benefits of getting there on foot or by bike are far wider than personal health benefits. In addition, the alternatives (principally car) are actively damaging to health and the wider environment - and the associated road maintenance costs would exceed anything caused by pedestrians and cyclists. Councils have a financial incentive to get people out of their cars - although many don't seem to act if that was the case.

    How may park runners are the chronically obese. Park run's website indicates that more than 50% of runners are not members of running clubs - meaning that a sizeable minority are.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  4. Min
    Member

    At some point I should do some work today...

    Yes, sorry. I want to get my thoughts down while still fresh but please feel free to ignore this until you have time!

    I do not believe anyone is drawing a massive salary. However, they are drawing A salary and I think this makes a difference.

    Lets look at a sliding scale on usage of a "free" resource (that is not free to maintain). All IMHO of course.

    1. I run round a park with a few friends two days a week. Fine.

    2. I organise 10 of my colleagues to run round the park twice a week. Fine.

    3. I organise 250 of my colleagues to run round the park twice a week. Well you know, I would absolutely expect noises to be made about this by the council and by local residents. I would expect to have to negotiate continued use of the park.

    4. The 10 of my colleagues in 2. are paid to organise for 250 of someone else's colleagues to run around the park twice a week. That is a no brainer to me. Claiming that you are doing it for free whilst drawing a salary, no matter how modest is just not true. The volunteers are doing it for free but Parkrun is not.

    Futhermore, I would like to see some evidence of how many of these 250 would be inactive if not for my initiative and how many were already runners who were just participating in my "free" event.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  5. fimm
    Member

    Well, last Saturday's Edinburgh (Crammond) park run results are here: a crude count gives me 130ish out of 505 finishers with a club listed - not only athletic clubs but also triathletes and jogscotland (the largest number) and "NHS couch to 5k" whatever that is.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  6. chdot
    Admin

    Just met someone who does the PR in Figgie Park.

    She is conscious that there is some running on the verge at the start.

    She is aware that this causes "some" damage.

    She would be happy to put some money in a bucket 'if it went to looking after the Park'.

    (True anecdote.)

    Posted 8 years ago #

  7. steveo
    Member

    "NHS couch to 5k"

    Its basically an interval session for inactive/non runners. Over the course of few weeks it takes one from walking with a few jogs interspersed to a full 5k run.

    Got me started last year its fairly popular and at least the first few weeks are pretty effective.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  8. Klaxon
    Member

    Grass damage from repeated usage over the same area is permanent. Grass only takes so much wear and dies away - needing resewn, cordoned off and left to rest. The alternatives are leaving a dead area as seen on many 'cut corners' or paving a desire line.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  9. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    "She would be happy to put some money in a bucket 'if it went to looking after the Park'."

    That's the sort of feedback we've been getting from Parkrunners themselves (before a Friends post was removed from the Parkrun FB page). The runners themselves are definitely aware, and willing to help (we had 3 or 4 stayed behind to help out at our last couple of litterpicks, and I got talking to a guy early one Sunday who had only learned of the park from the Parkrun, and had come back with his binoculars for the birdlife).

    Posted 8 years ago #

  10. fimm
    Member

    I do know what "Couch to 5k" is - I'd just not come across it as a running club before!

    Posted 8 years ago #

  11. steveo
    Member

    Sorry fimm, misunderstood.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  12. The Boy
    Member

    Possibly silly question, but what is stopping the Friends from shaking a few buckets? PR don't allow it, but who cares? It's a public venue.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  13. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Exactly, and that's our fallback, but we still want to try and be collaborative, as well as giving the people who are running a real sense of the benefits of the park (for those who travel to run).

    Posted 8 years ago #

  14. chdot
    Admin

    I'm sure they'll 'let' you - for a %.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  15. The Boy
    Member

    A noble enough stance, WC. Personally I'd have seen the 'we don't allow it' response and just gone straight out with me bucket.

    Then again, I seem to have a very low tolerance of the sort of entitlement PR seem to display.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  16. urchaidh
    Member

    When FoFP asked about a collection previously ParkRun suggested we'd be wasting our time as very few of the runners would likely carry change. FoFP pointed out that if they were warned there was going to be a voluntary collection in advance (maybe through PR's excellent communications) they might bring some change, and FoFP would be happy to take it before the run. Silence followed.

    (edit: we == Friends of Figgate park)

    Posted 8 years ago #

  17. acsimpson
    Member

    I've got a few thoughts to add having read through this thread but I'm afraid I can't remember who they are all responses to. Some of this may now be outdated as it comes from around 2013 when I read some of the background information when starting to become a parkrun regular.

    Local Parkruns are themselves required to raise half the cost of setting up a new Parkrun with the rest then coming from a central fund. At the time the total cost was £6,000 to set up a run. It sounds like there is now more flexibility in this structure, presumably as the areas which can afford/justify raising £3,000 fluctuates with time.

    Regarding if/how many councils fund parkruns I know that Cumbria Council has made significant contributions/outright payments to start at least one parkrun. This included allowing a member of their staff time to setup the parkrun in question, although by the time it started and I spoke to her, she was an ex-member of staff and running the parkrun in her own time.

    Crammond parkrun has a reasonable central core of co-ordinators. One of which turns up hours before everyone else and cuts the grass around the start/finish to keep it well manicured. The only real damage I am aware of is the finishing funnel which was once grass but with 500+people walking on it every week is now a well word desire line down the edge of a fence. As others have mentioned Crammond is a good space for the run with wide paths and reasonably good at allowing others along the path other than a very brief period (<1 minute) at the start. Otherwise there is a parallel path along the front others can use to ensure they can keep walking while the runners progress along the main path.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  18. acsimpson
    Member

    Regarding the company structure I don't think the guy founding Parkrun has made much money directly from parkrun UK (I suspect this is the parkrun ltd entity) other than his wife working for them. However I think he may own the patent on the timing technology they use which is licensed to parkrun global who do pay fee for it's use.

    I can't say what the figures are but the idea I got was that Parkrun in the UK is given the technology for free.

    Parkrun do have a small selection of merchandise for instance they sell barcode cards (either credit card or keyring size) which are far more durable that a home printed barcode. I don't know if the income from these is reserved for a certain purpose but I think the details that came with it suggested that it goes to Parkrun Ltd.

    Google's Cache has a copy of an about us page which is no longer on parkrun: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:9eJF12n2_1gJ:www.parkrun.org.uk/aboutus/organisation/
    "In crude terms parkrun owns the results and runners database (protecting this significant resource from commercial exploitation), and is responsible for interacting with our runners and volunteers. UKTT still exists but is only responsible for providing technical services to parkrun"

    Posted 8 years ago #

  19. Stickman
    Member

    From Twitter:

    "@Leroy_edi

    @Edinburgh_CC just checking: you are not planning on doing same as Stoke Gifford parish council re #ParkRun charging? (#Cramond) #runchat

    @edinhelp

    @Leroy_edi Hi. This isn't something we do. Most sporting events are encouraged in our parks & greenspaces free of charge. Thanks, ^La."

    Posted 8 years ago #

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