According to planningresource: ODA unveils plan for open spaces

Oh that housing legacy!

It seems the OPLC, the Olympic Park Legacy Company, has revised the amount of housing for the 'legacy' downwards from 10-12,000 units to 8,000.

Of course, it has to be pointed out the housing on the Stratford City site, the Athletes' Village, was going to be built anyway as planning permission had already been granted before the Olympics took over the land.

The Clays Lane Former Tenants Association (CLFTA) has recently discovered, to its astonishment, that the London Development Agency deducted money from the compensation paid to forty of the tenants relocated under the Olympic Compulsory Purchase Order. Eleven of those relocated received no compensation at all.

Three Games, three eviction stories. In September 2009 Planning Theory and Practice Magazine published, in its Interface section, three articles on displacement caused by three different mega-events, the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The publication is attached.

The LDA has now provided the information I asked for, see below*. Ms Adams says 'If it is helpful, I address each aspect of your request below for the sake of clarity.' That is certainly useful and, 'for the sake of clarity', would indeed have been helpful first time round! Still, let's not be churlish and thank the LDA for providing the information requested.

In a mealy-mouthed response to my request for information about the costs of acquiring several pieces of land in the north of the Olympic Park the LDA says ‘The Commissioner in that Decision Notice required the LDA to disclose to you the “withheld information”. That term is not specifically defined…’ The LDA then goes on to argue, in its letter of 26th September 2008 (attached), that the information withheld related to the leasehold of the Clays Lane estate and the freehold of the Park Village estate “and not in relation to the other pieces of land requested by you on 15th September 2008”.

The 2012 blog continues to churn out the same misleading information. A recent posting by a local resident reminded me of the experience of going through the compulsory purchase inquiry and having our estate and community dismissed by the LDA. I tried to post a comment but, not for the first time, that was disallowed. Like a true colonialist operation the ODA claims to listen to ordinary people and to practise inclusion, but its own publicly funded website refuses to allow a proper debate.

The LDA has been told in a ruling by the Information Commissioner to supply details of how much it paid for a number of sites, including the Clays Lane estate, purchased under the Compulsory Purchase Order, and to whom this money was paid. The original request was made in July 2008, see attachment ‘LDA FoI response on cpo statements’. Curiously the complaint was upheld because, despite claiming an exemption, the LDA failed to offer a reason why it should apply.