Hackney still not happy with media centre legacy

I've just been sifting through the Draft minutes of the Olympic Delivery Authority's 23 June planning meeting to approve the £355m Olympics media centre and it makes for fairly diverting reading.

You can read the full details for yourself here Item 4 - DRAFT Minutes of 47th Planning Committee Minutes 23 June 2009.pdfbut the first thing that jumps out is Hackney council's ongoing worry that the government is somehow diluting its original commitment to making the development the main creator of jobs, and therefore regenerator or east London, post-Games.

Hackney council's Cabinet Member for Regeneration and the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Guy Nicholson made representations to the Committee saying that although the parties had "come a long way" with revised plans for the centre, the "revised recommendation, when compared with the original recommendation, has watered down the obligations on employment legacy and no longer includes financial penalty for loss of employment space".

In response ODA officers said that the removal of the financial penalty did not mean the scheme was being watered down.

They said the section 106 requires what they termed the "Legacy Transformation Strategy" for the International Broadcast Centre part of the complex "to be delivered or for an alternative to come forward and for all "reasonable endeavours" to be used to ensure it will be delivered".

They add that the new agreement gives greater "flexibility and deals with the reality of the current economic situation whilst ensuring the delivery of a Legacy employment development".

I'm not sure how this works though. Either the financial penalty originally included has been removed or it hasn't.

Anyway Hackney won't have too long to wait before it gets a real grasp of the government's commitment to bringing major job-spinning tenants to the complex after the Games (I am being ironic here I'm afraid).

It appears that the submitted application includes "as an objective" completing and making available for use the Legacy IBC by 31st December 2019 or earlier, subject to viability and reasonable expenditure in the circumstances.

In addition it includes a "commitment to seek planning permission or approval of reserved matters for a Legacy IBC by 31 December 2017 at the latest and to notify the Local Planning Authority by 30th September 2019 whether or not the Legacy IBC provision and completion is reasonably practicable".