2012 Games 'will fail to boost grassroots sport'

Olympics chiefs came under attack for allegedly failing to devise a costed plan for improving participation in grassroots sport on the back of an increasingly "elitist" 2012 project.

Doubts about the Olympic sports legacy dominated the Evening Standard Influentials debate last night and came to a head in heated and sometimes personal exchanges between fellow panellists 2012 chief Sebastian Coe and author and Olympics opposer Will Self.

They were responding to warnings from audience member John Bryant of a "widening gap" between drugenhanced elite sport and the Games' aims of drawing people into sport.

Mr Self said: "I'm always slightly surprised by the idea that kids who are ordinary at sport are going to be galvanised to participate by elite performances. It's understandable Seb Coe wouldn't understand because he is an elite sports performer. Those of us who are just OK at sport actually are intimidated."

Mr Coe, double Olympic champion and chairman of 2012 organising committee Locog, said: "I will fight the nostrum that this is just about elite sport. The challenge is not whether we finish fourth or 20th in the medals table but what we do to convert big British moments into 10,000 more kids picking up sport." He conceded London had a "Third World" sports infrastructure but said the Olympics would remedy this.

Mr Coe accused Mr Self of being a newcomer to the debate about the plight of the capital's sports venues. "You were never out there when we were closing playing fields in Enfield. You were probably standing outside theatres."

Kate Hoey, the London mayor's commissioner for sport, said: "Legacy is about what is happening at grassroots level and there has to be a budget for ordinary kids in London. We haven't got that and we should be honest about the fact we have spent so much time worrying about making sure the Games work and facilities are built." Ms Hoey won applause among the audience when she proposed moving two of the Games venues because she said they would deliver no grassroots legacy.

The Labour MP and former sports minister, who opposed the London 2012 bid, said that shooting at the Royal Artillery barracks in Woolwich should be moved to the national centre in Bisley, Surrey, and that the equestrian events be moved out of Greenwich Park to Hickstead. Members of the audience raised concerns that Greenwich Park would be off limits for a year due to the Games and said there had been "no public consultation".

Olympics minister Tessa Jowell came under attack from other panellists about the Olympics budget which stands at £9.3billion compared with the original figure of £2.4 billion. She insisted this had not been kept artificially low to win the bid and that she could not have predicted that VAT, not part of the bid figure, would have been added to the bill.

Standard columnist and Olympics sceptic Andrew Gilligan said: "Because you did not tell the truth about costs at the beginning, nobody believes your assurances now."

He reminded Ms Jowell that former London mayor Ken Livingstone admitted the budget was a "con trick" to leverage investment into the East End. Mr Self said: "Can we square the circle here? It may be a deliberate deceit on his part and you guilelessly walked into it."

Mr Coe said the figure was always more than £2.4billion but said "maybe we didn't get this across properly". Mr Gilligan disputed claims by Olympics chiefs that "75p in every £1" was being spent on regeneration, claiming the Games chiefs' own budget figures disproved this.

In answer to the debate question "Are the Olympics good for London?", a show of hands among the 200-strong audience at the Royal Society of Arts showed about two thirds believed it would be beneficial and a third were unconvinced.

Video: watch highlights from the debate here

Will the Olympics be good for London? - what the panellists said...