ALL of Bradford’s parkrun events have been granted permission to resume from June 5, the date when Britain’s biggest running club is set to officially restart.

Bradford Council has granted permission for the six Saturday morning 5ks across the district to begin again next month if parkrun decides to go ahead with its planned restart date.

It means the runs at Bowling Park, Horton Park, Lister Park, Roberts Park (where there is also a Junior parkrun), Myrtle Park and Cliffe Castle should all resume as planned.

The Council said it was “delighted” the runs would return providing free activities to help people get fit and active and to socialise.

A decision is due on Friday as to whether the runs will begin again on June 5, with around 400 events across England still yet to be given the green light to start again.

parkrun has said the return of the free weekly runs “hangs in the balance” as it waits for some 589 events to be granted landowner permission, with only around 160 given the green light so far.

In a blog post on its website, parkrun said: “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 June 5 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 1 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.”

parkrun said negotiations are ongoing with many landowners across the country, but the discussions with Bradford Council are already completed.

A Bradford Council spokesperson said: “We have been working with parkrun headquarters and the Event Directors since we received their request to restart parkrun, to ensure we adhere to national guidelines.

“Therefore, we are pleased to confirm that permission to restart parkruns from June 5 has been granted.

“We are delighted that this popular activity is returning to our parks, which brings people of all ages together to get active, improve their health and enjoy our district’s fantastic parks and green spaces.”