The company that organises Great North Run will 鈥渟truggle鈥 to put on this year鈥檚 event unless the Government steps in to help provide insurance, its founder says.
Sir Brendan Foster, who started the race in 1981 and chairs the Great Run Company that stages the annual half-marathon and other events around the 海角视频, said festivals and live events are unable to plan properly for the Government鈥檚 re-opening roadmap because they have not been able to get insurance to cover their events.
Last year's Great North Run was among many that had to be cancelled due to pandemic restrictions, but the company is hoping to hold the 40th run in September.
Sir Brendan said there had a 鈥渞ecord entry鈥 for the year's event, with 60,000 adults and 10,000 children wanting to take part in the main event and the junior runs that happen on the same weekend.
But, speaking to the BBC Today programme, he said it was 鈥減rohibitive鈥 for organisers to plan major events unless they had some form of indemnity in place, and called on the Government to work with the insurance industry to provide a scheme.
He said: 鈥淭o open up these large events and to ease the restrictions, the key tool in doing that is missing at the moment because the insurance industry is not available to offer insurance for major events.
鈥淔or the last 40 years, since the very first Great North Run, when we were instructed that we had to take out insurance, we鈥檝e done that every year since.
鈥淎t the moment, the market for insurance has failed so we鈥檙e making a plea alongside lots of other people, as part of the Let Live Thrive campaign, to say to Government: please get together with the insurance industry and try to cover this lack of a market.鈥
Asked whether this year鈥檚 event could go ahead without insurance, he said: 鈥淲e will struggle. We鈥檇 have to see how we can do it, in what shape we can do it.
鈥淏ut also, major events throughout the country, everyone鈥檚 in the same boat. This is not just about the Great North Run.
鈥淭his is about the Government seeking to get things back to normal and seeking to get Britain back on its feet by the autumn.鈥
Sir Brendan said he was 鈥渃autiously optimistic鈥 about the September 12 event happening in some form but said the establishment of some form of insurance scheme was 鈥渢he first hurdle鈥 and without it, it would be difficult to put on mass events.
A Government spokesperson said: "We are aware of the wider concerns about securing indemnity for live events and are exploring what further support we may provide.
"As announced in the Roadmap, the Events Research Programme will consider the effectiveness of various measures to reduce transmission risk at large events, including testing. The programme will start this weekend with pilot events carried out across a range of settings, venue and activity types."
