The London Assembly were on bewilderingly disappointing form this morning as they quizzed the Olympic Park Legacy Company about the progress the body is making.
After a number of questions revisiting old ground about the Olympic Stadium [did the Assembly expect Baroness Ford and Andrew Altman to concede that the stadium should not be used for Athletics post Games?], the various other landowners at the site, and the £400,000 (?!) of extra financing the LDA has suggested the OPLC will need to transform the Park post Games - "it's actually £450m I'm afraid" a clearly bemused Margaret Ford pointed out - the crucial topic of when and if the Olympic Park site and associated £600m of debt would ever transfer to central government from the LDA's balance sheet was at last addressed.
The Olympic Park Legacy Company has launched an initiative to get young people involved in the design and development of the Olympic Park in Stratford.
The OPLC's Legacy Youth Panel is made up of 22 young local people aged between 13 and 21 who over the next five months will visit the Olympic site, tell planners what they would like to see as well as visiting local schools to see what children want to see on the park post Games.
Well there is nothing wrong with that. Clearly, young people in and around Stratford should be asked what they would like to see and I'm hopeful that a couple of the volunteers will guest blog here about their experiences - Andreas and Sarita, if you are reading!
Chief Executive of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, Andrew Altman, explains: "We want young people to feel a sense of ownership towards the Olympic Park because they will be the generation that will most experience the change to east London over the next 25 years.
"The Legacy Youth Panel is a fantastic opportunity to capture the imagination of young people and galvanize others into getting involved.
Boris Johnson and Tessa Jowell are equally supportive.
Neale Coleman, the mayor's adviser on London 2012, and Peter Bishop, deputy chief executive of the London Development Agency, went before the London Assembly's Budget and Performance Committee this morning to primarily face questions about the Olympic Park Legacy Company and the continued wrangling over who controls the Olympic Park and the liability the LDA took on to assemble it.
There was much of interest discussed.
For the first time to my knowledge, apart from in the pages of Estates Gazette and on this blog, there was a frank admission that a key sticking point has been central government's desire to have greater control of the OPLC than the current 50:50 position shared with City Hall.
Here is what I wrote about this a month ago here and here.
Coleman today said "good progress" was being made in this area but he wasn't hugely convincing.
He said that a sticking point was "around issues to do with governance and how [the OPLC] is run in the future. The mayor's position is very much it should be an equal partnership between GLA and central government as we want to make sure the company is driven primarily by creating the best possible legacy for east London and not just narrow financial situations affecting central government."
Baroness Ford was in typically straight-talking mood this morning at the Department for Culture Media and Sport Select Committee meeting.
I point this out because it cannot be easy sounding candid and lucid when the subject turns to Olympics budgets and in particular the "great matter" of who is politically in charge of the regeneration of the Olympics site post Games.
As with Henry VIII's great matter I think it will take several years before we see a victor, and at present I'm not sure if Boris is going to turn out to be Anne Boleyn (pictured) or Catherine of Aragon.
The Olympic Park Legacy Company has this morning warned that as much as £450m more than budgeted for will be required to "transform" the Olympic Park post Games.
Speaking at a Select Committee meeting in front of the Department for Culture Media and Sport at the Houses of Parliament, Baroness Ford, chairman of the OPLC, and Andrew Altman, chief executive, confirmed that current Olympic Delivery Authority budgets for work on dismantling and preparing the 500-acre park in Stratford east London after the Games came in at £350m.
But Ford and Altman said the London Development Agency had separately estimated that a further £450m would need to be found by government to ready the site for use post Games.
It's clearly a significant development in terms of the "legacy" development of the park.
The Olympic Delivery Authority has unveiled fresh images today showing the completed cladding on the International Broadcast Centre, and the Main Press Centre reaching its full height.
You can see the latest images and a webcam at the below links Images: http://mm.gettyimages.com/mm/nicePath/locog?nav=pr133749623
MPC: http://www.london2012.com/plans/olympic-park/webcams/main-press-centre.php
IBC: http://www.london2012.com/webcams/international-broadcast-centre.php
The Mayor updated on the ongoing wrangling between Treasury and City Hall over who takes on the Olympic land and debt at mayoral question time, providing a further insight into the politics holding up agreement.
Boris suggested that the nub of the row was the need for cast-iron guarantees that Treasury did not take to great a control of the Olympic Park - something that I have already written about on several occasions.
My colleague Laura McBride has made a short film of current progress on the Olympics site.
Mayoral Question Time this morning has again promoted the idea of introducing Community Land Trust's at the Olympic Park.
The Trusts are non-profit making property trusts, popular in the US and Scandinavia, which aim to benefit the surrounding community by ensuring the long-term availability of affordable housing.
Andrew Boff asked the mayor whether he supported Baroness Ford's interest in the idea of installing a Community Land Trust at the Olympic Park.
The mayor was clearly supportive of the initiative but accepted Boff's warning that there was a danger that they could produce closed communities if managed poorly.
Johnson added: "We want to encourage CLTs for the community with a wide range of family housing and the rest of it."
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