Barnard Castle parkrun route to change to protect meadow

Organisers of Barnard Castle’s weekly parkrun are to change its route to help protect a sensitive hay meadow.

The event on the upper Demesnes has been a hit with locals and visitors alike drawing crowds of up to a hundred people to the town since it was started late last year.

But a top botanist has warned it is damaging one of the country’s best urban hay meadows.

The hay meadow was started in 2009 and has developed into a thriving biodiverse environment.

Leading botanist and orchid expert Dr Richard Warren, who was part of the group that created the meadow, called for a “small alteration” of the route.

He added: “Sadly, serious damage is being done to the meadow’s health, and further and worse damage is also inevitable if the current route of the run is left in place.

“Firstly, there is the impact of 180 people trampling over the grass most weeks.

“This has resulted in the paths used by walkers that used to be about one metre wide now measuring up to seven metres in width in places.

“The result of this is inevitably that the compacted ground will not drain after rain, so becoming waterlogged and turning acid.”

The botanist said this would result in certain plants not surfacing or flowering.

An example of the knock-on impact, Dr Warren said, was the pignut which is host to a rare moth – the chimney sweeper moth – that feeds on its tubers.

He said: “If the food source is not available, the moth will not survive, and become locally extinct. That is only one example of the web of interactions between species of animals and plants.

“We have identified in a meadow like this there are hundreds of relationships like that. That is why you need to keep the place intact.”

Dr Warren met parkrun organiser Steve Bage, as well as town councillor Roger Peat on the upper Demesnes.

Cllr Peat, who helped create the meadow, said Parkrun had already made some tweaks to the route after he had previously highlighted some issues to organisers.

He added that he attended the latest parkrun event and was impressed with the way organisers had briefed athletes ahead of the run, stressing they should stay to the left of the flags marking the course.
Mr Bage confirmed the event is well marshalled.

He said: “We have got little flags out every five or six metres to show people where the line is, where they can’t cross and they have to stay left.

“That is mentioned at the briefing we do at 8.45am every Saturday. We have marshalls that shout at them if they do stray.

“We have a regular set of marshalls, who understand why we need to preserve the hay meadow.”

However, he agreed it was important to maintain the biodiversity of the area and said he would meet fellow organisers to consider changes to the route.

The organiser noted that it would take some time to devise a new route, complete risk assessments and then get approval from the town council and the parkrun organisation.

Mr Bage said “We will have to get creative, although it is not going to happen overnight.”

Asking whether parkrun is no longer allowed to use the field, Dr Warren said: “I am not saying that. We are not draconian, more Darwinian.”

It was also agreed that the annual run for the town’s Meet festival that follows the current parkrun route would be allowed to continue.