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East Brighton Park (images: Pete Ranson/Giedrius Čeginskas)Outrage silenced as park turned into "dangerous mud bath" by cyclocross race recovers in time for Parkrun
The controversy over a cyclocross event in Brighton which left a park a "quagmire" and a "dangerous mud bath", attracting fury from some residents and councillors, appears to be a thing of the past as the ground has now largely dried out and recovered.
This morning's Parkrun event — organised by Cllr Nancy Platts who said she was "disappointed" the cyclocross race had gone ahead in such wet conditions — was not affected, as it was feared it might be earlier in the week, and pictures from the site show the drier weather has helped restore the grass.
Following an inspection the popular 5km running event was given the green light by organisers who said "while it remains muddy in places" they are "happy to proceed".
"We would have hated our event to have jeopardised somebody else's"
Speaking to road.cc about the week's events a spokesperson from Brighton Mitre Cycling Club, who hosted the eighth round of the London X League series which saw more than 300 riders race last Sunday, said the fears about damage to the ground "were not completely unjustified" but "hopefully" Parkrun going ahead will "draw some kind of line under it".
"The initial fears about the state of the park were not completely unjustified as there was a lot of mud on Sunday when we finished," the club explained.
"We were always confident that the grass would recover quickly but the Parkrun crew, in particular, were angry that their event would need to be cancelled – for three months they were initially suggesting – and that would have been upsetting for us too as we would have hated our event to have jeopardised somebody else's.
"The council were very sensible in their assessment of the damage and as it became apparent that the ground was recovering, the fallout began to subside. The Parkrun organisers have announced that they are going ahead with their event on Saturday so hopefully that will draw some kind of line under it for the time being.
"It's always tough organising events and, like every event organiser, we look to minimise the impact upon other facility users whenever we host anything. Hopefully we can work with all the park stakeholders next year to ensure the continued success of the event."
"Dangerous mud bath"
The early week was dominated by local news reports detailing the "mess" created by the event, accompanied by pictures such as the ones below and complaints from local politicians and some residents.
"Brighton Mitre Cycling Club, can you please explain why you felt it appropriate to go ahead with this cyclocross event on the wettest week in recent history?" wrote one local on Facebook.
"I know it will recover, this is besides the point – other park users now have to navigate and look at the mess you've left behind. I hope it was worth it."
Cllr Platts told Brighton and Hove News several residents had contacted her to express their "shock" at the mud.
"It's council land, so my understanding is that normally if the council thought it was going to be dangerous or that it was going to cause damage they could say it can't go ahead because the weather is too bad. They could have done that.
"The risk is now that it's already such a quagmire that it starts to get dangerous because too many people will slip. I've had loads of people write to me because they normally walk their dog, kids use the park and we've got fitness groups who regularly use the park and massive areas of it now are just mud.
"I just don't think it's acceptable to turn the park into that mud bath and I think a lot of people are really shocked by it."
A council spokesperson apologised to residents affected by the race's aftermath but noted that the damage was largely "superficial".
"We gave serious consideration to calling the event off because of the weather. But we decided it should go ahead because it was a very valued and popular charity event that enabled hundreds of people young and old to enjoy the outdoors and improve their health and wellbeing.
"Ultimately the damage is relatively superficial and the grass land and paths will recover. Our parks are for residents and visitors to enjoy and there is space for everyone."
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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24 comments
Slightly off-topic but I remember a Matt Parker episode where he worked out how many runs would be needed to complete the "bingo" card for Park Run (having a time that ends on each second from 00 to 59.) It supposedly is a fun challenge for regular park runners to do that.
I did wonder what the cycle equivalent of this might be.
Can't belive the double standards of some of the comments here. Im sure many will be the first to argue for their 'right to cycle on the road without being a target of abuse' yet are so annoyed at other people's 'right to run in a park for free'. They might not do your sport and many might think your a lycra w*nker but that doesnt make one sport or recreation trump the other.
It looked a mess afterwards, I can understand an emotional response to seeing and thinking your event is going to be cancelled because of it. No harm done.
Some local Park runs are on grass... or deep mud by the Thames.
I do neither CycloCross or Park Runs.
But ... isn't one done exclusively on grass / unpaved surfaces, and the other done on paved surfaces?
Would be interesting to see a plan of the CX route, overlaid with a plan of the Park Run to see just where the conflicts would have occurred.
I'm going to assume that if the CX competition did includ any paved areas, these were swept down and left tidy for other users ...
this park run is run entirely on grass apparently https://www.parkrun.org.uk/eastbrighton/course/
Plenty of parkruns are on a lot of grass. The Tunbridge Wells one in winter can be a quagmire.
So do they have to cancel the cyclocross as a result?
I had same problem years ago when promoting Yorkshire Cyclocross Champs, Silsden park. Mainly one person trying to stop it then, because it rained, same person had full page spread showing the 'damage' which would be 'permanent', except a week later you wouldn't have known the event had been held. Good job the event was supported by Bradford sports councillor. Eric Stone won by the way.
Just out of interest, do Park Run pay for the use of the park given that they are free to enter?
I ask as our local one uses a mile long disused railway shared path out of town and back. Its nicely surfaced and a good way to get out of town on any type of bike.
However, it wasn't that shared the last time I tried to use it during a park run, with a couple of hundred runners using it, the majority of whom had driven to the start.
If they don't pay for the use of the path, why should I as a tax payer pay for the repairs and cleaning afterwards?
I cycle and do Parkrun, Parkrun do not pay to use the parks but they are also totally non-commercial, no-one makes money as the events are totally free for all participants for ever. They are organised entirely by volunteers who do it all for free every week.
Cool but they still use something for which we, as tax payers, pay for.
Sorry but if I was running an event on a local park, such as a game of football, I'd have to pay for the pitch: I bet the cyclocross organisers also had to pay for the park, hence Park Run should pay.
On a light hearted note... I hope you don't swim before your cycle, or run afterwards or we would have to get you banned under Rule 42!!!!
This all sounds a bit "road tax" to me. Aren't the Parkrun participants also the same tax payers that pay for the park?
According to a "friend" who is a runner.... people travel from miles around to "tick off" parkruns so no, IMHO, its not the same.
Sorry it just irritates me that an organisation uses what I pay for, for free. My old sunday football side changed in their cars (yes, yes...), made no mess and yet still had to pay nearly £2 000 a season for a mudbath of a pitch.
And don't believe the people who run Park run aren't coining it in: https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/parkrun-global-income-down-17-during...'s%20total%20income%20fell,%C2%A3849%2C000%20to%20%C2%A3517%2C000 The events may be run by volunteers but the boses are making big money.
You are quite right, people will travel from all over to 'tick off' particular park runs. There are lots of people who try to get one for each alphabetical name etc. But you know what these freeloaders do bring? Money into your local economy. Chances are some might stay in the area to eat, shop or stay over. For the use of a park for about an hour while they run a 5km route seems a pretty good deal for the host town. That has to be a good thing
As a tax-payer and hater of running (it just seems really boring to me), I'm more than happy for runners to be able to use parks for free. It seems to me that that's what parks are for and we should definitely encourage people to get exercise. I can understand that other events can involve damage/cleanup and so should pay for that, but I can't see that a bunch of people running and not racing is going to cause any damage or litter.
Is it my imagination or is Parkrun run by a bunch of entitled arseholes?
Mind you they probably say the same about us!
I would say it's your imagination, but southerners... I (and lots of other cyclists) rode to one of my local parkruns this morning. The bike racks - and anything nailed down - in south Manchester are generally pretty packed.
But for mud. Wythenshawe Park, especially the B route. In dry weather it's lovely, in heavy rain you want to put down life preservers by the bigger puddles.
Disappointed with this attitude, both groups are just people wanting to exercise and have a bit of fun, each group should treat the other and the park with respect rather than pitching them in battle against each other. It's the same with this driver v cyclist thing, most cyclists are also drivers and vice versa, we should all learn to share the parks/roads.
Well I cycle, drive, ride a motorbike and I do parkruns. Judging by how many bikes there are chained up near the start of my local parkrun, loads of cyclists do the run as well. Not many people drive to it, as there's not much parking available. The people who do my local parkrun are ok and I know a few of them.
Id be interested in your take on Triathletes. Do you love em while they ride but as soon as they dismount your'e spitting venom at them?
Not sure what your take on swimmers is but Id guess you'd class them as entitled arseholes but moister.
Can I still be outraged, outraged I tell you, on principle?
the real test is whether the council permit the cyclocross event to take place again. Ive seen similar results before where a particularly muddy CX event led to the same look on the course, and the local dog walkers complained to the local press, one of whom was a councillor, few weeks later the park was fine as grass recovers and actually its good ground management to do this occasionally, but the council never permitted CX use of the park again.
It's just the usual losers with nothing better to do that get the arse because someone else used "their" park. Pub bores with a Facebook account. Platts is a joke as well. For a supposed "socialist" she talks an awful lot about "our" park, like people who live there have some sort of priority over public space.
I estimate about 10% of the park area was used for the course. "Large areas unusable" - what utter bullshit. But when did truth matter to a politician type eh?
Fuck the lot of them. They don't deserve anyone's time.
Seen this sort of damage before when I was doing cyclo-cross racing, it looks terrible, but it's amazing how quickly the land bounces back.
It would be handy for organisers to be able to share before/after/a week or 2 after photos to alleviate fears of long term damage.