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Olympic chiefs chauffeured by 3,000 cars for 'green' Games
Anna Davis, Evening Standard06.03.08
London's plans to hold a green Olympics have been undermined by demands for dignitaries to be chauffeur-driven to the Games every day.
The International Olympic Committee wants more than 3,000 cars to take officials and corporate sponsors to the site, despite them having free access to public transport.
The demands, which include giving the cars access to dedicated lanes closed to other traffic, threaten to ruin London's ambitions to hold the first carfree Olympics of modern times.
The IOC insists that its members need the cars, along with the presidents and secretary generals from the Olympic committees of the competing nations and executives from the corporate sponsors.
None of the 10,500 athletes will be able to use the cars - they will be expected to travel on a dedicated fleet of coaches instead. Coaches will also run every few minutes between the VIPs' hotels and the Olympic venues, but the London 2012 Organising Committee said it could not force them to use them.
The cars have to be provided because they are part of the IOC's contract with London, which is being kept secret. Even members of the London Assembly have to sign a legal agreement before seeing the contract not to divulge its contents.
Dee Doocey, the assembly member who chairs the committee scrutinising the Olympics, said: "You can't tell Londoners to travel by public transport, yet kick them off their roads so that VIPs can be whisked around in limousines."
Jenny Jones, Green member of the assembly, said: "I am appalled that so many bigwigs will be chauffeured around on dedicated lanes."
Ken Livingstone pledged to raise the issue with IOC President Jacques Rogge, saying he agreed that some officials needed cars to carry equipment, but he could not see a justification for chauffeur-driven transport.
