Fourteen councillors and an MP turned out for the latest weekly parkrun in Brighton and Hove, with some lending support while others took part in the 5km run.
Four of the five venues for the free weekly events are council-owned parks, with the fifth at Bevendean Down.
The politicians were welcomed by the former Labour leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, Nancy Platts.
She is a parkrun volunteer event ambassador and said that the event was inclusive, not least because it was free and open to all age groups and abilities.
She said that parkruns and parkwalks were linked with the council’s health and wellbeing strategy – improving fitness, building wellbeing and reducing social isolation.
Those who were due to take part included
Bevendean Down – Labour councillor Jacob Taylor and the Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle
East Brighton Park – Labour councillor Tristram Burden
Hove Park – Conservative councillor Ivan Lyons and Labour councillor John Hewitt
Hove Prom – Labour councillors Andrei Czolak, Paul Nann and Jilly Stephens
Preston Park – Green councillors Ellen McLeay and Chloë Goldsmith and Labour councillors Birgit Miller, Liz Loughran, David McGregor, Tim Rowkins and Bella Sankey
Nancy Platts said: “I’d like to say a huge thank you to our councillors, including the leader Councillor Bella Sankey and to Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP for enthusiastically joining in with parkrun on what turned out to be one of the hottest weekends of the year.
“It was great to have a chat about parkrun with Bella and some of the other councillors over an ice cream afterwards.
“Their support is a boost to our parkrun teams who value our strong relationship with the council.
“That partnership has enabled our events to grow and we now have over 1,500 adults and children taking part in one of our seven events across the city every single week.
“Parkrun events are led by volunteers and are as much about building a community as they are about fitness.
“Lots of people make new friends and go on to get involved in running clubs and other community activities in our city.
“The events are open to all ages and all abilities and anyone is welcome to join us any weekend.”
Anyone interested in setting up a new parkrun should email nancy.platts@parkrun.com to find out what is involved. For more details, click here.
Always a pleasure to help out at Park Run. With more than 1,000 runners every Saturday morning in Brighton & Hove across 5 events we must be one of the fittest cities around? I’ll be at Preston Park this am (on the other side) competing but these events couldn’t happen without the volunteers, so big thanks folks – you are appreciated for giving up your time.
We’d rather you did something
about the weeds. Thats what you were elected to do.
What about the hedges and other crud from peoples gardens blocking pavements, I wonder what the vocal weed brigade feel about getting on that or is that different because you can shout at a faceless entity.
If you were listening, you’d know there’s been quite a bit to work towards a long-term solution.
While running, we do our best to trample on the weeds to keep them down!
So you think its funny, we shall all remember your jokes at the next election.
Imagine spending your life so upset about something that you yourself, presumably a big boy, could fix in about 2 minutes.
Jilly Stevens was unable to attend Hove Promenade parkrun last weekend owing to illness, but promises to do in future
Nice to see them attend but how about actually volunteering, that’s the side that all these runs from adult to the kids runs on Sundays need help on as getting enough volunteers to be able to stage the evenst is a weekly