At the top of the concrete road, the runners and walkers go around the Nahoon lighthouse, which has a beautiful view of the sea below. I suppose on this part of the run, for about 30m or so, a runner's arm or elbow might touch a bush or two. Is this what the great enlightened officialdom is worried about?
The wolf cry of environmental damage comes from officials who sat by and watched the decimation of all the blue duiker in our coastal forest and who continue to sit by indifferent to the tons of raw effluent pouring into the Nahoon Estuary.
It defies all common sense and beggars belief that there is an accusation that a group who run and walk on the beach then on tar and gravel roads once a week on a Saturday morning can cause any harm to be concerned about, or any harm at all.
This last Saturday morning, about 15 of us still met to run and walk. The bemused talk in the group was how could the metro be so greedy and unfair? My thoughts were not so complimentary.
But there was an upside. The atmosphere felt pre-1994, with comrades assembling in defiance of the ivory towers of power. We all chose to run anyway and it felt great.
The forbidden park run has nothing to do with the beach or the coastal forest. It is, sadly, just about power and money, who decides and who must pay. — Simon Kirk, Nahoon Mouth
READER LETTER | Parkrun power play
Image: Alan Eason
Your editorial "Parkrun Decision Must Serve Public without Jeopardising Site" (SD Feb 22), article "Comrades Legend Fordyce, BCM in Parkrun Legal Spat" (Feb 21) and other earlier articles on the topic refer.
I am not surprised that BCM has forbidden the Nahoon Parkrun. Payment first, under the guise of environmental concerns, has been demanded from the kind folk who organise the event.
The run starts near the Nahoon river mouth then goes along the beach for about a kilometre. On this section the runners and walkers leave only their footprints in the sand, which before the end of the day will be blown away by the wind or washed away by the tide.
The run then goes through the corner car park, a car park made of tar, and then up a tar road, then onto a gravel road until it meets another tar road, then it loops around and goes up a hill on a concrete road.
It’s really not my expertise but tar, gravel and concrete are, I think rather hard-wearing and should withstand the pitter-patter of runners' and walkers' rubber soles once a week.
Comrades legend Fordyce, BCM in parkrun legal spat
At the top of the concrete road, the runners and walkers go around the Nahoon lighthouse, which has a beautiful view of the sea below. I suppose on this part of the run, for about 30m or so, a runner's arm or elbow might touch a bush or two. Is this what the great enlightened officialdom is worried about?
The wolf cry of environmental damage comes from officials who sat by and watched the decimation of all the blue duiker in our coastal forest and who continue to sit by indifferent to the tons of raw effluent pouring into the Nahoon Estuary.
It defies all common sense and beggars belief that there is an accusation that a group who run and walk on the beach then on tar and gravel roads once a week on a Saturday morning can cause any harm to be concerned about, or any harm at all.
This last Saturday morning, about 15 of us still met to run and walk. The bemused talk in the group was how could the metro be so greedy and unfair? My thoughts were not so complimentary.
But there was an upside. The atmosphere felt pre-1994, with comrades assembling in defiance of the ivory towers of power. We all chose to run anyway and it felt great.
The forbidden park run has nothing to do with the beach or the coastal forest. It is, sadly, just about power and money, who decides and who must pay. — Simon Kirk, Nahoon Mouth
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