Wirral Council has funded a parkrun through Vale Park and New Brighton Promenade and is asking for volunteers. Birkenhead's event needed 52 last Saturday.

Wirral is getting a second 5km parkrun. Wirral Council’s Active Wellbeing team is setting one up at Vale Park in New Brighton, and says the funding is secured and the route is mapped. It will run through the park and along New Brighton Promenade (Wirral Council).

What the council has not given is a start date. It is asking for volunteers first, and until it has a core team the event cannot open. parkrun’s own website has no event page for Vale Park, which is the usual sign that a new event is still in the setting-up stage rather than waiting for a launch day.

If you want an idea of the commitment involved, the numbers from the other side of the borough are blunt. Birkenhead parkrun needed 52 volunteers last Saturday to put on one event.

What the council has said

The announcement, published on 24 August, sets out that:

  • funding for the event has been secured
  • the route through Vale Park and along New Brighton Promenade has been mapped
  • volunteers are needed between 8.30am and 10.30am every Saturday
  • a core team is required, covering event directors, first-timer welcomers, course checkers, timekeepers, marshals, photographers and tail walkers
  • no experience is needed and you do not have to have been to a parkrun before

Anyone interested is asked to register by emailing fionahanik@wirral.gov.uk.

Fiona Hanik, health development officer for Active Wirral, said there had already been “an excellent response from residents wishing to volunteer, which is fantastic news, but the more the merrier.”

Councillor Jenny Johnson, chair of the council’s Tourism, Communities, Culture and Leisure Committee, said a Vale Park event would prove as popular as the two Wirral already has, and that it “is something that has been discussed for a while and now we have almost everything in place to get the event underway.”

What a Wirral parkrun actually takes

Wirral currently has two events. Birkenhead parkrun is the only 5km one, at 9am every Saturday in Birkenhead Park. Wirral Country Park junior parkrun is a 2km event for 4 to 14 year olds, at 9am every Sunday at Thurstaston.

Birkenhead’s own results archive shows what a mature Wirral event looks like, and why the council is asking for people before it asks for runners. Across the 33 events held in 2026, Birkenhead has averaged 828 finishers and 51 volunteers a week, with the volunteer count never dropping below 44 and reaching 59 on one Saturday in July. Its most recent event, number 488 on 29 August 2026, drew 761 finishers and 52 volunteers (Birkenhead parkrun event history).

It did not start there. The first Birkenhead parkrun, on 18 July 2015, had 223 finishers and 17 volunteers. The event has since recorded 240,086 finishes in total, and its busiest morning was 10 May 2025, when 956 people finished.

Birkenhead parkrun: average finishers and volunteers a week, by year Bar chart of the average number of finishers per event at Birkenhead parkrun by year, with the average number of volunteers labelled. 2015: 178 finishers, 18 volunteers. 2016: 248 and 20. 2017: 295 and 21. 2018: 404 and 23. 2019: 481 and 26. 2022: 470 and 33. 2023: 542 and 37. 2024: 667 and 45. 2025: 748 and 47. 2026 so far: 828 finishers and 51 volunteers. Birkenhead parkrun has quadrupled, and so has the crew it needs Average finishers per event each year, with the average number of volunteers per event alongside. 2015178 finishers, 18 volunteers 2016248 and 20 2017295 and 21 2018404 and 23 2019481 and 26 2022470 and 33 2023542 and 37 2024667 and 45 2025748 and 47 2026828 and 51, across 33 events so far Source: Birkenhead parkrun event history, all 488 events to 29 August 2026. 2020 and 2021 are left out because covid cut both years short. Graphic by Wirral Online

The 2020 and 2021 years are missing from that chart on purpose. parkrun was suspended for most of both years because of covid, and Birkenhead held only 11 events in 2020 and 20 in 2021, so an average across them says nothing useful.

Why Vale Park

Vale Park sits on Magazine Promenade, CH45 1LZ, and is open 24 hours a day all year round. The council’s own record for it confirms the Green Flag award the announcement refers to, and lists a bandstand, a rose garden, a children’s play area, a fairy garden, a kick-about pitch and the Vale House cafĂ© (Wirral Council park record).

The site solves a real problem. Birkenhead parkrun is now regularly putting more than 800 people round one park on a Saturday morning, and everyone at the west and north of the peninsula has to drive to it. New Brighton is served directly by the Wirral Line, which matters for an event that starts at 9am.

What it means for you

  • If you want to volunteer, email fionahanik@wirral.gov.uk. The ask is 8.30am to 10.30am on a Saturday, and no experience is needed.
  • If you want to run it, there is nothing to sign up to yet. There is no start date and no parkrun event page for Vale Park.
  • If you cannot wait, Birkenhead parkrun runs at 9am every Saturday in Birkenhead Park, CH41 0EZ, and Wirral Country Park junior parkrun at 9am every Sunday at Thurstaston, CH61 0HN. Both are free, and both need you to register with parkrun once and bring a scannable barcode.
  • Register with parkrun only once. The same barcode works at every event in the world, so anyone already registered does not need to do anything new when Vale Park opens.

Getting to New Brighton by train takes about half an hour from Liverpool Central, and the New Brighton branch was running as scheduled this weekend. Times are on our Wirral train times page, and if you are driving on the four nights the Queensway tunnel is shut, check our roadworks and travel page first.

Sources