Submission from the Mayor of London and
London Development Agency (LDA)
SUMMARY
1. The Mayor of London and the London Development
Agency (LDA) have key roles to play in delivering the London 2012
Olympic and Paralympic Games and its legacy for London. Preparations
for the 2012 Games have continued apace since the Committee's
last inquiry on this subject. This submission will focus on the
contribution of the Mayor and the LDA to the areas being scrutinised
on this occasion, in particular sports venue legacy and sports
participation in London.
2. A lasting legacy of benefits for London
and Londoners is central to the Mayor's vision for London 2012.
The legacy benefits will accrue before, during and after the 2012
Games, and already Londoners are starting to see this. We are
bringing back into public use an area of the city that has been
largely derelict for decades, and ensuring that the infrastructure
is in place for the Games and also the community that will live
and work in this area after 2012. In addition to transforming
the heart of the East End, we are working to ensure the legacy
of the Games will be increased opportunities for all Londoners,
from sport and culture to jobs and skills. The Mayor will publish
his legacy commitments to Londoners early in the New Year.
INTRODUCTION
3. The Mayor of London, exercising the functions
of the Greater London Authority (GLA), has a central role in the
delivery of the London 2012 Olympics, including:
— co-chairing the Olympic Board
with the Minister for the Olympics;
— part-funding the Olympic Delivery
Authority (ODA) as set out in the funding package;
— as a signatory to the Host City
contract with the International Olympic Committee; and
— leading the delivery of the
legacy of the 2012 Games and benefits for London.
4. The LDA also has a number of specific
responsibilities relating to the 2012 Games: assembling and remediating
the land needed to develop the Olympic Park; acting as the interim
legacy body; and developing and delivering programmes to deliver
social and economic benefits for Londoners from the Games.
5. The Mayor is pleased with the excellent
progress that has been made to deliver the Games, progress commended
by the International Olympic Committee. Over the past year, for
example, the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic
Games (LOCOG) has signed three major sponsors, and the LDA has
been able to hand over possession of the Olympic site to the ODA,
as required.
PROGRESS IN
PREPARING VENUES,
BOTH WITHIN
THE OLYMPIC
PARK AND
ELSEWHERE
6. The LDA has played a central role in
securing ownership of the Olympic site, allowing the ODA to take
forward venue construction. In July, the LDA transferred ownership
of the Olympic site to the ODA. As a result, 100% of the required
land is in public sector control. Despite the complexity of the
land assembly programme—the site contained some 2200 land
interests—Vacant Possession has been implemented smoothly.
By the end of July 2007, the LDA had supported 193 businesses
in successfully moving from the site, safeguarding 98% of the
4750 jobs.
DEVELOPMENTS IN
SECURING FUNDING
FOR ALL
ASPECTS OF
THE GAMES
7. The revised funding package for the Olympic
and Paralympic Games was announced to Parliament in March 2007.
The contribution from council tax payers remains at £625
million, the level agreed in 2003. Without any further increase
in council tax beyond that already committed, or any increase
in transport fares to fund the Olympics, the Mayor has agreed
to make a further £300 million available to help meet Olympic
costs over the lifetime of the programme.
8. The Mayor and the Rt Hon Tessa Jowell
MP agreed a revised Memorandum of Understanding in June this year,
to put in place arrangements to enable the National Lottery and
future regeneration needs of the local area to benefit from the
returns on the investment being made.
LEGACY USE
OF VENUES
9. The Olympic Board has identified the
LDA as the interim legacy body for the 2012 Games. In performing
this central legacy role, the LDA has responsibility for:
— acting as the legacy client
and establishing a robust post Games legacy structure for the
future management of the parklands and venues;
— delivering the legacy master
plan for the Games through a legacy master planning framework
process;
— establishing and delivering
a development strategy for the land and legacy;
— leading the legacy and business
planning process for the Olympic parkland and venues; and
— securing the socio-economic
and sporting benefits arising from the Games.
10. In taking forward these functions, the
LDA is working closely with key partners, including Government,
the ODA, the UDC, the local boroughs and the Lee Valley Regional
Park Authority.
11. Legacy was at the heart of London's
bid and has been an integral part of the planning for the Games;
for example legacy has been built into the designs for the Park
and venues. The LDA is working closely with the ODA to ensure
a seamless shift from Olympic to legacy mode.
12. The LDA's legacy planning is well advanced
compared to other host cities. EDAW, on behalf of the LDA, are
leading work to ensure the Olympic Masterplan links seamlessly
with the Legacy Master Framework (LMF), which will be the planning
framework for the legacy Park. The procurement of a Masterplanning
Team for the LMF is already underway. A shortlist of six candidates
was announced on 16 October 2007. Tender assessments are underway,
and we are on track to make an appointment in January 2008. The
LMF will be completed early in 2009.
OLYMPIC PARKLAND
AND VENUES
LEGACY AND
BUSINESS PLANNING
13. The LDA has been working closely with
the ODA and other stakeholders on the detailed design of the venues
to ensure legacy considerations are incorporated from the outset.
There has been significant work to date on outline business and
legacy planning for the major permanent sporting venues on the
Olympic Park. This has helped to determine the mix and type of
sports venues that will be retained after the Games.
14. Grant Thornton and Partners have been
appointed to develop an outline business plan for the transformation
and longer-term management of the Olympic site after the Games.
The objectives of the business plan will be to provide a robust
funding and delivery model for the Park and venues in legacy,
and to ensure their use is viable and sustainable on a long-term
basis.
15. Team working across all partners is
critical to the development and delivery of a successful LMF.
The LDA recently hosted a successful event to mark the first in
a series of joint partner activities aimed at drawing together
a joint statement of intent and important information for the
LMF brief.
16. The planned retained sporting venues
on the Olympic Park post-2012 are:
— The Olympic Stadium—after
the Games, the Stadium will be scaled down to a 25,000-seat venue,
to deliver a sustainable all-year round sporting and community
legacy. A number of legacy uses are being considered to ensure
that the stadium is a "living stadium" accessible to
local people and communities. Detailed work on the legacy of the
stadium continues, including discussions with a number of potential
partners about how best to deliver this. The Stadium will be capable
of staging international athletics events, premier league rugby
and non-premiership football. We remain committed to athletics
being at the heart of the Stadium after the Games, as we promised
the IOC.
— The Aquatics Centre—in
legacy, we will retain two 50m swimming pools and a 25m competition
diving pool, allowing a mix of elite and community use. The seating
capacity will be reduced to 2,500, although it will also be possible
to add a further 1,000 seats to accommodate a major future international
swimming event such as the European Championships. Proposals are
also being considered for a leisure pool and health and fitness
facility, in a separate, but linked, building. These proposals
emerged from partnership working with the local boroughs and the
local need they identified for such a facility.
— The Velopark—the
Velopark will bring together all the cycle sport disciplines in
a single hub. On the basis of our outline legacy planning, and
the needs of cycling as a sport, the velodrome will retain the
6,000 spectator seats required for Games time. A BMX circuit will
be located adjacent to the velodrome, and a one-mile road cycle
circuit, cycle speedway track and mountain bike course will also
be added. This is being developed in close consultation with end
users and the national governing body of British Cycling.
— Handball Arena (Arena 3)—this
will be a permanent 6,000-seat venue, that will be retained in
situ in legacy on the western side of the Park, to the south
of the media centre. After the Games, the arena will be converted,
providing an indoor multi-sport centre, with a flexible seating
arrangement. This will serve as a training and competition venue,
and regional home for a range of indoor minority grassroots sports.
— Eton Manor—Hockey/Tennis/Indoor
Football—The current planned legacy facilities for the
Eton Manor site are: a Hockey Centre (two competition standard
pitches with up to 5,000 seating around one of the pitches), a
tennis centre (indoor and outdoor courts) and space for an indoor
five-a-side commercial football centre, which could have strong
links to the adjacent Hackney Marshes, creating a strong northern
sporting cluster to the park.
IMPACT OF
THE GAMES
ON GRASSROOTS
PARTICIPATION IN
SPORT, BOTH
BEFORE AND
AFTER THE
GAMES
17. In addition to acting as interim legacy
client for the Olympic Park, the LDA is working with partners
to ensure a wider sporting legacy from the 2012 Games.[1]
Already Londoners are starting to see the legacy benefits for
sport of hosting the 2012 Games. We are also linking our work
on venue legacy with work to widen participation in sport: for
example by developing clubs so that they have the capacity to
make best use of Olympic facilities after 2012.
18. The LDA are already investing to provide
increased opportunities for Londoners. Programmes include:
— Summer of Sport has been
successfully running for the past two years from 2006-07. An investment
of £500k per annum from the LDA from 2008 will help to develop
this programme and ensure a more sustainable increase in participation.
— Winter of Sport—working
with Youth Sport Trust to establish over 50 new after school sports
clubs and with London Sports Forum to offer coaching events and
programmes for disabled Londoners.
— Sport technical officials
programme—working with National Governing Bodies of
Sport, Sport England and Skills Active to ensure that sports officials
reflect the diversity of London.
— London Leisure Academy—providing
sport and leisure skills training through a "one-stop shop".
The LDA is supporting the development of the London regional hub,
which will coordinate the work of the Academy centres of excellence,
focussing on coaching, leisure management, health and fitness
and stewarding.
— Inclusive and Active—a
disability sport action plan for London. The LDA is contributing
£500k to support the training of disabled people to become
sports coaches.
19. Excluding the Olympic Park and venues,
the LDA has already committed over £20 million to sport provision.
New programmes that are being developed will increase this by
at least another £1.5 million per annum. We have made, and
are continuing to make, a significant investment in Crystal Palace.
Combined with our contribution of £2.1 million towards the
Hillingdon pool, this has ensured that there will be two Olympic-sized
pools operating in London prior to the London 2012 Games.
20. On behalf of the Mayor, the LDA is commissioning
the development of a Sports Legacy Plan for London, which will
bring together the collective efforts of the GLA/LDA, Sport England,
Youth Sports Trust, UK Sport, London Councils, the Pro-Active
partnerships and other key delivery agents.
21. In addition we are putting in place
measures to monitor the effect of hosting the Olympic Games on
sports participation. New monitoring tools and evaluation frameworks
will provide the first real impact assessment of an Olympic and
Paralympic Games.
November 2007
1 In particular, the ODA, LOCOG, Sport England, Youth
Sports Trust, Skills Active, and London Councils. Back
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