Games Monitor - Planning & Development

More ‘Anecdotal’ Complaints of Noise and Dust from Leabank Square Residents

Julian Cheyne — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:43:59 +0100

Washing day at Leabank Square

2012 Athletes’ Village ‘Time Lapse’ Legacy

Julian Cheyne — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:12:41 +0100

Despite admitting that there is no housing legacy from the Athletes’ Village, as the housing would have been built anyway, the ODA is still claiming the Athletes’ Village is an Olympic Legacy, a kind of Time Lapse Legacy, because they assert that the involvement of the Olympics means the project will be delivered earlier than it would otherwise have been, see article ‘2012 Legacy Housing Double Counting’. So I decided to ask another FoI question to establish when the ODA thought the housing would have been delivered if the ODA had not taken over the site and to ask them to further explain their reasoning.

Higgins bl*gs again

Julian Cheyne — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 01:14:46 +0100

Following the criticism of his posting about Stratford City (see 2012 Blog**ng Lies and Censorship) Mr Higgins seems to have been alerted to a negative comment from another respondent, dg (see below), who also pointed out the Stratford City was planned before the Olympic Bid was won. So our Dave had another shot at convincing blog readers that Stratford City really is an Olympic gain (see further below). Apart from dg the only other responses came from some very impressionable shopaholics or possibly ODA staff!

2012 Blog**ng Lies and Censorship

Julian Cheyne — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:45:52 +0100

It’s not only the Chinese who censor comment! The following 'terminological inexactitudes' appeared on the London 2012 Blog from David Higgins, Chief Executive of the ODA, as the London Olympics tries to purloin every development in the vicinity of the Olympic park for the ‘Legacy’. Not only do we have a post-Games legacy but now a pre-Games legacy! Stratford City, Stratford 2011, Newham Council Major Opportunity Zone 1 (as in Newham's Unitary Development Plan) or whatever it's called is now just another example of the catalytic effect of the Games, even though it was approved before the Bid was won, was designed to stand alone if the Olympics did not come to London and had been Newham's pet project for the previous decade. The Mayor of Newham was so protective of this scheme that at one point he put out a press release accusing London 2012 of endangering its survival.

FOI: what did the LDA pay for compulsorily purchasing Clays Lane?

Julian Cheyne — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 22:30:18 +0100

I recently asked the LDA a Freedom of Information question to find out how much it paid for a number of sites, purchased under the Compulsory Purchase Order, and to whom this money was paid. The sites included the Clays Lane and Park Village housing estates, the Clays Lane and Waterden Road Travellers' sites, the Manor Gardens allotments and the Eastway Cycle Track.

2012 Legacy Housing Double Counting: ODA admits housing for Athletes' Village 'would have been built anyway'.

Julian Cheyne — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:08:26 +0100

The ODA has had to admit that housing for the Athletes' Village being built at Stratford City, now renamed Stratford 2011, would have been built anyway, making a nonsense of the claims of a Housing Legacy from the Village, see the attached FOI response. To justify its continued insistence that the Village does indeed have a Legacy value the ODA is resorting to the argument that the housing on the Stratford City site would not have been delivered until much later, if it had not been for the Olympics.

Locals in Sochi Fight Off Olympics

Martin Slavin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:48:33 +0100

.: © Vasily Shaposhnikov

Residents of Imeret lowland, which has been chosen to as a construction site for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, clashed with bailiffs and police yesterday, July 22, 2008. Armed with sticks and bottles of incendiary mixture, 200 locals defended their houses.

'One World, Whose Dream? Housing Rights Violations and the Beijing Olympic Games'

Martin Slavin — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:26:06 +0100

The Beijing Olympics has displaced 1.5 million people since 2000, according to the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE). A new COHRE report, One World, Whose Dream? Housing Rights Violations and the Beijing Olympic Games, has found that the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to award the Games to Beijing has been a catalyst in increasing forced evictions and displacements in Beijing.

Hackney Wick residents complain about noise and dust from the Olympic Park

Julian Cheyne — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:09:56 +0100

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.

What happened to the relocated businesses? LDA FOI response

Julian Cheyne — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:55:55 +0100

According to the LDA the four Olympic Boroughs, Newham, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest lost a total of 93 companies employing 1245 staff as a result of the relocation of businesses. A total of 209 businesses employing 4964 staff were relocated. 25 businesses closed completely with a loss of 65 jobs. A further 10 businesses employing 54 staff are not accounted for.