Views being sought on 2023 Jim Clark Rally

Scottish Borders Council has opened public consultation on plans for the Duns-based motorsport event.

This year’s rally, sponsored by Alloa-based firm Beatson’s Building Supplies, will only be the third in the last nine years.

Council officials have been in discussions with the event’s organisers, the Jim Clark Memorial Motor Club, for months and now have all the documentation and plans they need to open consultation with members of the public, as required by law.

In addition to the event organisers’ ongoing talks with residents and businesses alongside the proposed rally stages, the council is carrying out a public consultation of its own, accessible online at scotborders.citizenspace.com or www.scotborders.gov.uk/consultations, and it will run until Sunday, April 2.

Proposed stage maps and timings, including those of requested road closure times, can be viewed.

Council leader and Galashiels councillor Euan Jardine said: “As in previous years, the council must assess the impact of the proposed Jim Clark Rally on local communities and the economy and ensure that the views of residents and businesses are taken into account.

“The rally organisers themselves are consulting with those along the stage routes to understand any particular challenges in respect of the road closures and mitigate them where possible.”

The rally was first staged in 1970 in memory of Berwickshire Formula One world champion Clark, alive from 1936 to 1968, and run annually, except in 1979, until 2014.

The deaths of three spectators in 2014 led to its cancellation the following year and it didn’t make a comeback until 2019, only to then be put on hold for another two years by coronavirus restrictions.

Last year’s winner was Irish driver Keith Cronin, with Mikie Galvin alongside.

Welshman James Williams was second, with Dai Roberts as co-driver, and Borderer Garry Pearson, accompanied by Dale Furniss, third, that being the 31-year-old’s first-ever Motorsport UK British Rally Championship podium place.

Fellow Duns driver Euan Thorburn, with Paul Beaton alongside, won 2022’s one-day Jim Clark Reivers’ Rally after being forced by engine trouble to drop out of the main event.