APPENDIX 27
Letter from the Hackney Environment Forum
to the Prime Minister
LONDON BID FOR 2012 OLYMPICS
1. I am writing to you as Chair of Hackney Environment
Forum, an umbrella group for a variety of environmental groups
in Hackney, London. Our activities include a series of Environmental
Question Times which brings together local politicians and local
people to discuss environmental issues of local concern.
2. We are writing to bring to your attention the
perspective of local groups towards a possible London Olympics
Bid for 2012. We consider that the benefits of the regeneration
value of the Olympics are grossly overestimated because they fail
to recognise the environmental value of East London's open space
and the work of Regeneration Agencies. Precise information about
the bidding process has been provided, but even at this comparatively
late stage, there is very little information available about where
in East London key events are expected to take place and the site
of the Olympic village. There is little discussion of public transport
implications for in Hackney's Lee Valley: it would seem that access
to events in the Lee Valley is likely to be by car.
3. A London Olympics (if the bid were successful)
would bring visitors into East London for the 17 days of the events.
It would produce several venues which bodies such as Lee Valley
Park might then be able to use for sports provision. However,
we are unconvinced by arguments that a London Olympics would provide
a valuable regeneration legacy. Any benefits an Olympics Bid/
London Olympics might bring have to be compared with the costs
and losses incurred by local people and local communities, as
outlined here.
4. The Olympics could rob East London of large areas
of open space. We are concerned that rumours we have heard about
the site of events (eg archery on Hackney Marshes) and Olympic
Village (eg Waterden Road and the open spaces of Arena Field and
Wick Woodland) suggest that the open spaces, Common Land and Metropolitan
Open Land in Lee Valley and Hackney Marshes are at risk of being
covered in buildings. Open space is particularly at risk because
it is quicker and cheaper to build on green spaces than brownfield
sites: there are no worries about sites being contaminated or
the time and expense to clean them up. It is also quicker and
cheaper to build on sites which are already in public ownership
because less time and money are taken up in bringing together
and purchasing parcels of land.
5. Hackney and other East London boroughs are already
densely populated. As argued in Planning Guidance (PPG 17), our
open spaces are important for our day to day quality of life.
Against the benefits of 17 days of entertainment and the legacy
of some sports sites have to be set the deterioration in the quality
of life of local people of concreting over open space in Hackney
and Lee Valley.
THREAT
TO
NATURE
CONSERVATION
VALUE
OF
LEE
VALLEY
6. GLA recently designated Lee Valley as a site of
Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation the highest
possible nature conservation designation. Heron and kingfisher—
two flagship species of London's and Lee Valley's Biodiversity
Action Plans live in Hackney's Lee Valley. Wick Woodland was planted
over six years ago as the result of a considerable amount of inward
investment and a partnership between local people, Groundwork
Hackney and London Borough of Hackney, and is cared for by the
local community. It is home to wide variety of birds, insects,
butterflies and animals, plants and semimature trees (such
as native black poplars especially grown by London Wildlife Trust).
Wick Woodland is part of the River Lea floodplain—it flooded
last in 2000.
PLANNING
BLIGHT
AND
DETERRING
REGENERATION
7. Regeneration is already underway in East London.
Hackney Wick Regeneration Board has been supporting regeneration
in Hackney Wick and Waterden Road for five years. As a community
partner on that Board, I am aware of the work of job creation
and environmental improvement in which the Board and its Regeneration
Agency have been engaged. This work will come to a halt if a decision
is made to back a London Olympics bid. The area will become a
nogo area until a decision is reached in June 2005: firms
will not want to move in and those firms operating in the area
and providing local jobs will not want to invest further while
their futures are uncertain. The area will be blighted even more
by fly tipping and illegal occupation. As Hackney Wick SRB programme
has demonstrated, there are quicker, cheaper and more certain
ways of helping regeneration in Hackney and Lee Valley than an
Olympics bid.
LACK
OF
INVOLVEMENT
WITH
LOCAL
COMMUNITY
8. Noticeably absent from debates about London Olympics/Olympics
bid is the negative impacts for Hackney and Lee Valley, and questioning
of the regeneration argument. There has been no attempt to inform
or consult with local communities, reinforcing our sense that
there would be few long term benefits for the people of East London.
9. We feel strongly that the Government could support
regeneration in East London in cheaper and more effective ways
than through their support for bid for 2012 London Olympics.
8 January 2003
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