Aims:

• To persuade Stoke Gifford Parish Council to allow Little Stoke parkrun to continue at Little Stoke Park.
• To allow parkrunners to demonstrate their support and indicate what Little Stoke parkrun means to them, in terms of physical activity, volunteer experience and community building.

Background:

Since Little Stoke parkrun started in November 2012, around 6,000 different people have taken part and more than 700 have volunteered. Throughout that time a strong community of parkrunners has developed, friendships have been made and a junior parkrun is thriving.

However the future of Little Stoke parkrun is now under threat. The Parish Council initially recommended that participants be charged £1 per adult per run, to be paid to the Parish Council as a 'maintenance charge' without any prior discussion with parkrun. They continue to insist that parkrun should make a financial contribution to the maintenance of the park.

At their next full Council meeting on 9 February the Parish Council will decide whether or not to withdraw permission for our 5k Saturday event at Little Stoke Park.

The key issues are:

• Every parkrun in the world is free to participants and, without local revenue, parkrun never pays fees for the use of parks.
• The impact on the park is very light and we believe any costs are substantially outweighed by the benefits parkrun brings to the community.
• The funding to bring parkrun to Little Stoke was provided by South Gloucestershire Council and parkrun UK, and the event is delivered entirely by local volunteers who contribute thousands of hours of their time over the course of a year. 
• The core volunteer team has worked hard to maintain good relations with the Parish Council and other park users, including reserving more parking spaces for other users, securing overflow parking off-site for parkrunners, and working with grounds staff and other park users to minimise any impact.
• The Parish Council is entitled to apply for Community Grant funding and parkrun will support this if our presence strengthens the case. We are also happy to support any other initiatives by which the Council might generate financial or non-financial benefits from the presence of parkrun, e.g the establishment of a cafe.

What you can do:

• Sign this petition and add a comment to say what Little Stoke parkrun means to you.
• Head over to our News page and Facebook page to read about other things you can do to help.

At the moment it’s the Saturday 5k parkrun that is under threat. However this decision could have implications for the junior event in the future and we hope that all Little Stoke parkrunners will want to help us ensure the continuation of both events at Little Stoke Park.

parkrun is the UK’s most successful and fastest-growing provider of free physical activity and its contribution to public health, the development of volunteer activity and community building, has been widely recognised and endorsed in the UK and frequently praised in the government’s recent Sporting Futures strategy paper.

Now is the time to make your voice heard. Please support us to keep our Little Stoke parkrun and Little Stoke junior parkrun in Little Stoke Park.