Sir Frank Berman QC pointed out a while back that the Law says Greenwich Park should not be used to "ride any animal except on the road between Blackheath Gate and St Mary's Gate in Greenwich Park"; to "camp or erect or cause to be erected any tent or enclosure"; or to "organise or take part in any assembly, display, performance, representation, parade, procession, review or theatrical event".

Leabank Square residents have panned the design for the Media Centre. So has CABE, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. Only they won't have to live opposite what one resident has called a 'tower block on its side'.

On 15th October Shona Abantu-Choudhury posted the statement below on the noise and dust at Leabank Square on the Leabank Square Blogspot along with pictures of the machinery at work. You can see what other residents have to say by following the 'comments' link below his statement on the blogspot. Shona and his wife Nadira were also interviewed by BBC News. This follows earlier reports contained in More ‘Anecdotal’ Complaints of Noise and Dust from Leabank Square Residents about the situation at Leabank Square. Residents are increasingly concerned at the steadily diminishing legacy they and others in Hackney Wick will inherit once the Games are over. Having lost a vital green space at Arena Fields they are now worried the promised replacement parkland will not materialise.

Washing day at Leabank Square

I recently found a message on my phone from a journalist at BBC Radio London, who had seen the Games Monitor article about noise and dust at Leabank Square, ‘Hackney Wick residents complain about noise and dust from the Olympic Park’. She wanted to get in touch with Shona Abantu-Choudhury, who had been complaining on behalf of residents. But by the time I got back to her she said they had already done the programme and anyway the problems had been ‘resolved’. Really! I asked who had told them this. The ODA. Hmmm! I said I didn’t think so and just in case I would ask Shona when I next saw him. ‘No way!’ he said. Well, that’s public relations.

Residents in Hackney Wick have protested at the dust and noise being produced from the Olympic Park. The statement reproduced below was sent on Sunday 6th July to Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, David Higgins, Chief Executive of the ODA and Sebastian Coe, along with other relevant officials and representatives, by Sona Abantu-Choudhury on behalf of the Leabank Square Residents Association about the disturbance being caused by work on the Olympic site.

There is a credibility gap between what people in local voluntary bodies have been told by professionals in the Olympic industry and what local volunteers' experiences of outcomes has been. This has happened most to those local voluntary bodies which have been affected by relocations from sites within the boundaries of the Olympic Park.

Users of the former Eastway Cycling facility in East London are currently protesting against plans for the 2012 Olympic Velo-park which they say will leave them without a facility for mountain bike racing in London. Pull up a chair, this is a long ol' story...