IOC visit sparks discordant updates on legacy

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I've been a way for the past week but a quick update on the Olympics landscape this morning suggests there has been much chest-thumping and gnashing of teeth ahead of today's inspection visit from the International Olympics Committee.

My inbox is of course replete with ODA updates on its rapid progress in building out the media centre and the village and the DCMS on everything being still on time and budget.

In jarring contrast Sir Robin Wales this morning issued a press release outlining thinly veiled concerns he raised at a Newham council-organised symposium yesterday about just how much the ODA and Locog are really interested in "legacy" in east London.

Speaking at the symposium, which also included Baroness Ford, chair of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, and representatives of previous and future Olympic cities including Athens, Sydney, Beijing and Vancouver, Sir Robin questioned whether the government agencies working on the project were focusing enough on an "enduring local legacy".

Wales said that the ODA and LOCOG were successfully getting on with their jobs of building and running the Games, "but that does not constitute the enduring local legacy that people were promised as part of the bid".

He added: "Just putting physical buildings into the ground does not reverse more than a century of deprivation. We must invest in people and the community at the same time.

Cllr Paul Brickell, Newham's executive member for the Olympics, added: "We need a clear story on how we will achieve the single most important legacy item which was central to the bid - if we are all going to work together to transform East London then we need support at all levels of Government for our programme."

Dave Hill at the Guardian has picked up on the sense of a vacuum in the all important area of legacy just now.

At present there is a great deal of optimism that Andrew Altman and Baroness Ford - who the London Assembly's Dee Doocey keeps referring to as "the strong woman" we need - and their Olympic Park Legacy Company are going to get the respective houses in order.

It is no doubt a crucial period for east London.

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This page contains a single entry by Paul Norman published on November 25, 2009 12:55 PM.

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