Oliver Dowden and Sadiq Khan are among the group of politicians urging local authorities to bring back parkrun– after councils in Watford and Three Rivers are reluctant for the event to return for its intended date.

Parkrun, the popular weekly 5km running event, is at risk of being “delayed indefinitely” due to many local authorities failing to grant permission for the event to return on June 5.

The event that attracts more than 200,000 people every week was expected to return around parks nationally on June 5, but only a third of adult parkruns have been granted permission by local authorities and landowners to return.

In fact, the organisers of parkrun says only 161 of 589 events have landowner permission to return.

Watford Borough Council and Three Rivers District Council are among the landowners to not approve the return of parkrun in time for June 5.

Now Hertsmere MP and culture secretary Oliver Dowden says he will write to local authorities will clear instruction to allow the event to return.

Speaking at the Commons today, he said: “It is something that I have discussed with my Right Honourable Friend the Secretary of State for Housing Communities and Local Government, and he and I will shortly be sending a very clear message and signal in writing to local authorities about our expectation that those events should proceed.”

In an open letter, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan also backed the return of parkrun for June 5.

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

Watford Borough Council says that it is open to welcoming parkrun back to Cassiobury Park only after all national lockdown restrictions are expected to be lifted, which is currently expected to be June 21.

Three Rivers District Council has revealed that it has not given formal approval for parkrun to commence in its sites.

A spokesperson for Three Rivers said: "Parks and open spaces have been extremely busy over recent months and at this stage the council has not given formal approval for parkrun to commence.

"This is under constant review with a number of factors taken into consideration."

The organisers of parkrun wrote: “As things stand, the return of the free, weekly, community events hangs in the balance, with organisers confirming that the number of permissions must increase significantly over the next seven days for any of the events to return on Saturday June 5 as planned.

“Despite legal permission to return and support from Government, Public Health England and Sport England, a combination of obstacles including misunderstanding the Government’s Roadmap, reluctance, hesitation and unnecessary red tape threatens to delay the return of parkrun indefinitely.”

A decision must be made by this Friday (May 21) – two weeks ahead of the planned return – to finalise if the events will restart on June 5 or not.

They continued: “With all other sports returning, alongside the reopening of indoor dining and hospitality, further roadblocks to parkrun’s return feel unreasonable, with non-response, red tape and internal administrative processes standing in the way of the inclusive, community physical activity.”

Conservative MP David Davis wrote to all MPs where landowners have not approved parkrun’s return on June 5 to say it would be a “national embarrassment” if parkrun did not resume.