Low entries force Jim Clark Reivers Rally cancellation

Elizabeth Allan, Len Stern and Iain Provan died at the Jim Clark Rally in 2014

A Borders rally held on a different course after three people were killed at the event in 2014 has been cancelled due to "insufficient entries".

Iain Provan, 64, Elizabeth Allan, 63, and Len Stern, 71, died at a stage of the Jim Clark rally near Coldstream.

Permission was withdrawn for the event to take place on public roads while investigations continued.

A revised event went ahead in Kielder Forest in Northumberland last year but it will not be held this year.

It had been hoped to run it on private tracks on 5 June.

The event, which can trace its roots back to 1970, had been held since 1997 on closed public roads in Berwickshire until the fatal accident.

Last year it went ahead as the Jim Clark Reivers Rally on tracks in Kielder Forest, after starting in Kelso.

Organisers said they had made the "very reluctant decision" not to hold the rally this year at a special meeting this week.

The event went ahead last year but will not take place this year

"We had insufficient entries by the closing deadline to make the event financially viable," said club chairman Dan Wright.

"This is an amateur club and we are all volunteers, we simply cannot afford to run the event at a loss.

"We do have limited funds in the bank but these are being held in reserve for next year's event when the Jim Clark Rally will return to a closed-road format."

Mr Wright paid tribute to the efforts of his team who had tried to take the event forward despite three major reroutes.

"First we had to change the route to avoid a pair of nesting goshawks in Wauchope Forest," he said.

"Then another pair was found close by another stretch of road forcing another major reroute.

"And a final rethink was under way to accommodate another rally event in three weeks' time in the same area."

Investigations are still ongoing into the incident two years ago in which the three people died.

Organisers said they were confident that once they were completed the event could return to its more "traditional format".