CHURCHILL Gardens is the venue for the hugely popular and still-growing Salisbury parkrun (not to be confused with current Parkour plans) and was launched in June 2015. It now attracts 500 or so participants and many volunteer supporters every week.
The total number of different people who’ve completed the free-to-enter 5K parkruns here now exceeds 4,500!
Many are visitors to Salisbury, bringing economic benefit to the city.
If the city council wishes to invest money on this excellent and well-used park, that is good news. But there are many of those participants – runners, walkers, male, female, young and old – who would far rather see cash more prudently spent on improving the 5K course and facilities supporting it, than to countenance the spending of even a small fraction of the £48,000 being considered for a Parkour experiment.
Some of the tarmac paths used for Salisbury’s parkrun are uneven due to tree root damage, a paved area needs levelling, the storage container for route signing etc could beneficially be replaced with more adequate provision, the toilet block badly needs improvement, and more frequent litter clearance by the council to supplement the efforts made by parkrun volunteers themselves would be good for all.
In these straitened times, leisure budgets must surely achieve the largest benefit for the greatest number.
Trying out Parkour is not the way forward: the broad appeal and inclusivity of parkrun has clearly demonstrated itself to be just that and is where any spending should be directed.
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