Statement from Conwy Parkrun about work behind the scenes

Dear Conwy parkrun community,

We wanted to update you on the work going on behind the scenes to get Conwy parkrun back up and running. 

It has been fantastic to see, from our Facebook page, the Conwy parkrun community enjoying their Saturday mornings at other parkruns, far and wide – but it would be even better to have everyone back in Conwy. We wanted to take this opportunity to update you on the progress we are making.

As you know, the work on the path between the RSPB nature reserve and the railway bridge forced us to pause our parkrun while the path was resurfaced. It’s great to see that this work has been completed on time, and it does look fantastic. Unfortunately, at the same time that this work began, we were made aware of concerns from parkrun HQ regarding the adequacy and safety of our car parking. This has meant we must address these concerns before we are allowed to restart.

The RSPB car park has been identified as being too small for an event that continues to grow in popularity year on year. Our current practices – such as signposting when the car park is full and redirecting people to Tesco from the roundabout – are not considered safe, as we are directing traffic on a trunk road without any training or appropriate equipment.

We have therefore been tasked with looking at alternative solutions to provide a course that uses as much of the current route as possible, but with safe parking arrangements. A solution that we, as an event team, are happy with has been submitted to parkrun HQ, and we are now awaiting their comments and, ultimately, their authorisation to allow us to restart. We have been assured that the parkrun HQ team is keen for Conwy to get back up and running as soon as possible, so we hope to have an update we can share in the next few weeks.

You can be assured that we want to get restarted as much as you do, and we are working as hard as we can to make it happen. Thank you so much for your patience and ongoing support.

– The Conwy parkrun event team