REGULAR charity and fun runners could find themselves priced out of next year's BUPA Great North Run after the introduction of a controversial new membership and ballot system.

The scheme also discriminates heavily against anybody who was unable to compete in this year's race, regardless of the circumstances.

Under the new admission rules, 2004 competitors only will be offered the chance to guarantee their place on the starting line for the next three years for a membership payment of £30.

But members will still need to stump up an entry fee for each year, meaning any runner from last year wanting to take advantage of the new system needs to pay £64 by mid-December.

Any remaining vacancies would then be subject to a random ballot, severely restricting opportunities for new runners at the famous event and alienating regular runners who were unable to race this year for whatever reason.

York runner Anne Wood, who has completed three Great North Runs but was not given a place in this year's race, said: "It's disappointing that if, like me, you were not fortunate to get a place in this year's Great North Run, you are unable to become a member and potentially your chances are greatly reduced by having to take pot luck when an indeterminate number of places will already be guaranteed to runners until 2008."

York-based Julian Cole qualifies for membership having ran the famous Gateshead race for the last six years but now has reservations about whether to apply again, resenting the prohibitive extra costs.

He said: "The extra £30 seems excessive, especially as in the first year under the new regime, it will cost runners £64 to enter.

"This is quite a lot to find, especially as registration takes place in the run-up to Christmas. The Great North Run is a wonderful occasion, but this new entry fee might just knock the edge off it."

David Hart, the marketing director of organisers Nova International, defended the introduction of membership but admitted it is unfortunate that, for example, there is no dispensation in place for a runner that might have ran in each of the first 23 Great North Runs but missed last year's race for whatever reason.

He said: "That would be a difficult situation but I don't think there will be too many runners who will have done, say, ten or 12 Great North Runs but missed last year's event.

"It's almost impossible to create a system that would keep everybody happy but charities do have a number of guaranteed places so that would be another way of getting in rather than the ballot."

Hart believes the new entry system is fairer than the previous "first come, first served" operation.

He added: "All 49,000 entries for this year's race were snapped up in ten days and that upset quite a lot of people who could have been on holiday and come back to find out the event was full.

"We have decided to reward people who ran in last year's race by introducing the membership scheme and then a ballot will be held in January. We will have to see how over-subscribed that is.

"Based on last year's entries we had 80,000 people apply so 30,000 people missed out. We anticipate the numbers will be the same this year but the ballot system might offer more of a chance for new people.

"Generally, 25 per cent of people who race one year go on to do it the following year. Many will now become members but some won't."

Hart added that group applications of up to five people will also be considered together in the ballot rather than accepting some family members or friends but rejecting others.

This year's entry fee has been hiked up to £34 from last year's price of £28.60.

Hart, however, defended the rise, saying: "We are introducing chip-timing for every runner this year so they will know their exact time from the moment they cross the starting line.

"All competitors will also be given free tickets to the pasta party."

Next year's race will take place on September 18 and applications for membership must be received by December 17.

This year's runners can register now on-line at www.greatrun.org

Updated: 10:26 Thursday, December 02, 2004