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London to host 26 World Championships at one time
Posted: 08.06.2007
And they will all take place in 'a scar on the urban fabric' of the city
There will be no 'white elephants' after the 2012 London Olympics.
This was stressed by Mr David Higgins, Chief Executive Officer of the Olympic Delivery Authority, who gave also gave assurance that the development of the site was going to plan.
Mr Higgins was speaking to members of the Global Economy Forum of the Cambridge University Land Society (CULS) on 'Delivering Europe's Largest Urban Regeneration Project for London "Can it be done on time and on budget?"
The answer it seems is YES.
Introducing Mr Higgins, Mr Douglas Blausten, Senior Partner of Chartered Surveyors and Property Consultants Cyril Leonard, said in his view the £9 billion Olympic budget was "a drop in the ocean; a cost that will be maintained.''
Mr Blausten added: "This is a huge and exciting project that will change the face of London."
This was echoed by Mr Higgins when outlining the various aspects of the massive project. And to stress the point he pointed out that the equivalent of 26 world championships would be held in one city at one time - "this has never been done before".
Working to clearly defined milestones, he said there were two aspects that made the project very complicated.
- Land
There were in total no fewer than 2,500 different sites that had to be cleared.
The overall site access was difficult.
- Decision making
Government decision making was needed for every decision taken by the Authority.
Also, anything over £100,000 had to go through European tendering.
Mr Higgins explained that overall it was "600 acres of distressed site; a real socio-economic problem for the country".
"A scar on the urban fabric is the city," he said.
Drawing on research data, Mr Higgins told CULS members that research had shown that people living in East London died 6 years earlier than residents in West London.
The various key phases of the huge project included:
- planning
- going underground (that is burying power lines)
- revising the masterplan
- the transport plan
- the planning application which was the largest in European history
It was, he explained, a question of "dig, demolish, design".
Despite the magnitude of the project, so far 25% of the site has been cleared, and most will be finished by the time of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Other statistics that drew surprise from the audience were that 50 tonnes of lighting to was required to cover athletics events alone; and 200 tonnes of light would be needed for the opening ceremony.
The stadium itself will seat 80,000 and will be twice the size of Wembley.
In environmental terms 96% of everything material on the site was being recycled.
But while the masterplan for the project had been clearly mapped out, the future of the area post-Olympics was not something that the Authority concerned itself with.
That was the |challenge for the future", he said, adding that it meant there would be hundreds of acres of land available for use.
But one thing he assured the CULS members: "There will be no white elephants". |
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Cyril Leonard partner Andrew Hogge in discussion with (right) Philip Leech, Group Managing Director of Terrace Hill Group plc, and (left) David Tye of Rugby Estates plc.
David Higgins (right) makes a point about the 2012 Olympics during his CULS address with Cyril Leonard's senior partner Douglas Blausten (left) looking on.
A section of the 70+ CULS audience at the Savile Club.
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