Parkrun has been forced to delay its planned reopening after many councils were reluctant for it to return on June 5.

More than 250 events were granted landowner permission to return on June 5, which fell short of the 589 overall events normally taking place nationwide.

The organisers of parkrun have announced with more than three million registered parkrunners across England, and around 300,000 people taking part on a typical weekend, opening a small subset of parkruns is not viable.

Locally, parkrun events take place in Cassiobury Park, Rickmansworth Aquadrome and South Oxhey Playing Fields.

When asked earlier in the week, Watford Borough Council said it was open to welcoming parkrun back to Cassiobury Park only after all national lockdown restrictions are lifted, which is currently expected to be June 21.

This means it was past the intended parkrun date of June 5.

Three Rivers District Council revealed that it had not given formal approval for parkrun to commence in its sites due to social distancing concerns.

The organisers of parkrun previously stated that the event could only commence nationwide if more local councils gave support for it to restart on June 5.

But despite the backing of politicians including Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, not enough local councils changed their mind.

In a statement, parkrun said: “In ongoing discussions, where landowners were withholding permission, parkrun organisers sought clarification on whether permission would be granted for a later date.

“With a number of landowners responding positively, parkrun UK will now target Saturday 26 June to resume all 5k events across England. A decision will be made regarding the go ahead for this new date on Friday 11 June.”

Currently, Cassiobury Park has been listed as an approved event for June 26, but Rickmansworth Aquadrome and South Oxhey Playing Fields has not.

Nick Pearson, parkrun Global CEO said: “We will continue to work hard with landowners over the coming weeks to secure the permissions needed to return at the end of June. We are incredibly grateful to all of the landowners who have granted events permission to return so far, and for the groundswell of support for parkrun over recent days.

“Although it is disappointing not to be able to return on 5 June, we are still optimistic that we can return parkrun events to nearly 600 communities across England very soon. We will do everything we can to ensure events restart on June 26.”