Games Monitor

'He [Higgins] told the Commons culture, media and sport select committee, that the creation of the new homes and 60,000 jobs in the Lower Lea Valley had not been planned at the time of the bid.'

SOME FORGOTTEN DREAMS.

Some extracts from London’s Candidate File which was delivered to the International Olympic Committee in November 2004

From: Volume 1–Theme 1 Concept and legacy page19

Benefiting the community through regeneration The Olympic Park will be created in the Lower Lea Valley, 13 km east from the centre of London. This area is ripe for redevelopment. By staging the Games in this part of the city, the most enduring legacy of the Olympics will be the regeneration of an entire community for the direct benefit of everyone who lives there.

The Olympic Park will become a hub for east London, bringing communities together and acting as a catalyst for profound social and economic change. It will become a model of social inclusion, opening up opportunities for education, cultural and skills development and jobs for people across the UK and London, but especially in the Lea Valley and surrounding areas.

From: Volume 1–Theme 1 Concept and legacy page 23

1.3 London’s long-term planning strategy

A key role for the Games

The Mayor of London’s plan for the city, adopted in 2004, provides the framework for spatial development to 2016.

Its overall objective is to develop London as an exemplary sustainable world city, with strong, long-term and diverse economic growth, social inclusion, and fundamental improvements in the environment and use of resources. It focuses investment and growth in the east of the city, recycling brownfield land to create high quality new mixed sustainable communities located around strategic transport nodes.

The London Plan identifies staging the 2012 Games as the ‘major catalyst for change and regeneration in east London, especially the Lea Valley, levering resources, spurring timely completion of already programmed infrastructure investment and leaving a legacy to be valued by future generations’.

From: Volume1–Theme 2 Political and economic climate and structure Page 37

Ken Livingstone – newly re-elected Mayor of London:

‘Every Olympics is memorable for those who take part, but London Games would be remembered by everyone.

Remembered by the athletes as the Games where every single Olympian and Paralympian found a community in London that shared their language, their culture and their faith, and whose support inspired them to perform their very best.

Remembered by Londoners for the new homes, the new jobs, the transformation of east London and the creation of London’s most significant new park for over a century. Remembered by the rest of Britain for spreading the excitement and the benefits of the world’s biggest sporting event across the country.’

SEB HAS A PUBLICITY NIGHTMARE DENYING THE TRUTH

London Games chief rejects budget overrun claims, Karolos Grohmann, Reuters, Apr 3, 2006,

London 2012 Games chairman Sebastian Coe has rejected reports the cost for infrastructure work for the Olympics could balloon by up to two billion pounds. On Sunday, media quoted Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) chief executive David Higgins as saying redeveloping funds for the Lower Lea Valley area where the Games will be held, would be higher than initially estimated. The reports said the redevelopment cost would rise by about two billion pounds.

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The London Development Agency are committed to building up to 42,200 homes in the region, up to 2016

I have done extensive research into the LDA's plans for housing regeneration in the region and submitted my conclusions to the Olympic site CPO Inquiry. In September I submitted a written response to the public consultation on the Lower Lea Valley Opportunity Area Planning Framework draft document produced by the LDA. My best estimate from published figures, included in these documents, is that they have for some time been planning on providing 42,200 new homes up to 2016 in the regeneration area, of which the Games are apart.

So reading the above statements from project leaders cited above is like watching different members of the 'Top Table' having a go at the three card trick. Because they know, in the age of the sound bite, very few remember their past moves.

Martin Slavin

WHERE DO YOU DRAW THE BOTTOM LINE ?..