Recent Freedom of Information responses from 2012 Olympics 'host boroughs' confirm the suspicion that local council funds and resources are being diverted into Olympics matters in ways that are not easily identifiable or accounted for. The lack of transparency and thorough accounting procedures make it almost impossible to calculate how much council tax payers are contributing to the 2012 Olympics as a whole, over and above the highly publicised £9.3billion budget.

“The Olympics will promote sport and healthy living in the capital,” it says the website of Waltham Forest borough council. “We can now look forward to seeing the area regenerate with the best sporting, leisure and cultural facilities the world has ever seen."

• Lammas - or "Loaf Mass" : first fruits festival at start of harvest
• Lammas Land : land that is common land between Lammas Day in August and Lady Day in March
• Lammas common rights first granted locally by King Alfred in 895. But probably the system had operated before then.

[Rosemary Johnson is Marsh Lane Fields Area Officer of the New Lammas Lands Defence Committee]

I speak, urging rejection of this application, for the New Lammas Lands Defence Committee, in the interests of all users this precious piece of our historic Lammas Lands, that once covered all the Lea Marshes.

Wednesday evening brought bad news for the London Development Agency whose bid to acquire land related to the Olympics was turned down by planners at Waltham Forest Town Hall. The LDA was applying for planning permission for allotments on Marsh Lane Fields where they want to relocate the existing Manor Gardens allotments, currently located within the proposed Olympic Park.