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Parkrun’s return home hangs in the balance as the weekly 5km event faces bureaucratic hurdles and stumbling blocks, with organisers from more than half the locations in England awaiting permission to go ahead.

The community-led run says at least 90 per cent of its events need to return at the same time to keep participants local and the numbers under control.

The event has its vocal supporters, including Seb Coe, World Athletics president, who urged decision makers to get behind the initiative or “risk losing it forever”. London mayor Sadiq Khan and Dame Sally Davies, master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and a former medical officer for England, added their voices to calling for parkrun to return.

Meanwhile, the event was held in more than 700 global locations this month, pulling in 66,000 runners and volunteers. Others are due to take place at the weekend in the US, Poland, Denmark and South Africa.

The main parkrun, which began in London 17 years ago and is held every Saturday at 9am, is scheduled to restart events in England on June 5 after a 14-month coronavirus lull. The event is held in the grounds of stately homes and in prisons as well as parks, commons, woods, playing fields and on beaches and attracts millions of runners every week.

But organisers say they are yet to gain permission from more than half the landowners that allow it to be held on their property. Junior parkruns of 2km began again on April 11.

The organisers said this week they have full or partial permission from landowners representing 237 events, are working with another 270 landowners and are waiting to hear from 63 more events. They are due to update the figure on Friday.

Still, they have increased the say so from more than 70 landowners in a week, after they said on Friday that the number of permissions must increase “significantly” from 161 of the 589 events for any of the events to return on June 5.

“Parkrun has been referred to as one of the greatest public health initiatives of the 21st century,” Olympic gold medallist Coe said in an open letter on Thursday.

Khan called parkrun a “London success story” as he urged borough councils and other landowners in the capital to join him in supporting its return.

The risk of Covid-19 infections is minimal during the open air run, a report published two months ago by the Office for National Statistics found.