VOLUNTEERS are being recruited ahead of the long awaited return of Parkrun to Southampton Common.

After being forced to stop its events at the common last March due to safety concerns regarding the pandemic, Parkrun is now due to reconvene on July 24.

This comes after months of waiting to get the green light from the council to use the site, as well as over a year of preparation and disappointments with restrictions being in place.

Now though, organiser, Rob Kelly says they are now building up the volunteer base to run the event safely and sending out messages to everybody who will potentially attend on the day.

Speaking to the Echo, he said: "We're just super excited now. It looks as if we're definitely going to return on the 24th, I don't think there's any doubt.

"I would assume over 500 people would attend on the first one and that's a conservative estimate.

"I think some people may decide to hold off for a few weeks until things have settled down but I do think there'll be more people looking forward to coming back more so."

Before the pandemic, the events would tend to attract around 800 to 900 people to the Common every Saturday.

Although the return falls after the easing of coronavirus restrictions, volunteers will be offered a face mask and there will be sanitizing stations for people to use.

The course has also been redesigned in a way that there is now said to be very will face-to-face crossing over with everyone running or walking in the same direction.

The event was originally planned to return in September last year, but following a rise in infections, that date was delayed.

It was then delayed further when the government delayed the final stage of its roadmap last month, but now Rob says: "I'm far more confident this time than on the three occasions before this when we thought we were going to come back and we didn't."

Parkrun Southampton have also put a call out to volunteers to help run the events and those who are interested can contact the organisers by emailing: southampton@parkrun.com with their name, details of the desired role and Parkrun ID.