It was feared Brighton and Hove City Council’s plans to amend opening hours at its public toilets could mean they were not available for runners to use.
Parkrun events are held in Hove Park, Preston Park, Hove Promenade and East Brighton, every Saturday at 9am.
In a budget proposal last week, the city council said toilets could open at 10am each day rather than 8am as they currently are.
Last Tuesday (February 20), The Argus asked council leader Bella Sankey where people attending a Parkrun should go to the loo before 10am, if the proposals go ahead.
Cllr Sankey said she is “committed to working with Parkrun to ensure that toilets are open for them and are looking at our overall operating model to see how this can best be achieved.
“We are committed to maintaining and improving public toilet facilities across the city as a whole. This will be difficult in the current financial climate, but I believe it’s achievable,” she said.
“The council is facing its worst ever financial crisis. We have to make cuts of more than £30 million for next year starting in April to avoid bankruptcy.”
Cllr Sankey has now told The Argus “special arrangements” are in place with Parkrun to keep the toilets open.
The budget proposal states that public toilets at Shelter Hall, West Pier Arches, Kings Road Playpark, The Colonnade and Daltons east of the Palace Pier, all in Brighton, would be open from 8am until 8pm and that “all other sites” would open from 10am and 6pm.
But Cllr Sankey says that while it was not written in the proposals that the Parkrun sites would be unaffected, she had “always been clear” they would remain open.
“The change in scheduled hours does not mean that toilets would not be available for Parkrun events,” she said.
“We will make sure arrangements are in place and will be liaising with the organisers to confirm what those are.”
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