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2012 chiefs slash costs
Matthew Beard, Evening Standard05.06.08
Olympics chiefs are planning a major reshuffle of Games venues to contain spiralling costs.
The Standard has learned of proposals set to be approved within months to scale down or relocate four venues in the Olympic Park. Changes are intended to avoid creating expensive "white elephants" after 2012.
They will also free up land that may be made available for homes.
There is increasing concern over the cost of the Olympics, with fears that the £2.7 billion contingency fund could be eaten into rapidly - even though ministers had said they did not expect it to be used at all.
Proposed changes affect the venues for fencing, handball, basketball and cycling events and come less than two years after the original park layout was agreed.
The fencing arena's cost has been predicted to reach as much as £90million, even though there are questions over whether it could be used after the Games.
The cost of the big three sports venues - the aquatics centre, main stadium and velodrome - has already exceeded original estimates by more than £500 million.
This has left the Olympic Delivery Authority with £252million remaining of its £1.07billion budget for venues in the 500-acre park in Stratford, which will host the majority of events.
Documents reveal that Olympics chiefs plan to:
• Halve the capacity of the handball arena to 6,000. The scaled-down venue would be "more appropriate" for a variety of sports after 2012.
• Move the BMX track now to a location adjacent to the velodrome to cut the cost of shifting it after the Games.
• Scrap the fencing arena and stage the event at the 8,000-capacity ExCel centre in the Royal Docks, which will host a total of seven Olympic sports.
• Move the basketball arena to the site originally earmarked for the fencing venue in the north-east of the park. This will give Olympics chiefs extra land on the western edge of the park which may be offered for sale. The 12,000-capacity basketball arena would host the handball final.
Moving the arena would ease crowd flows, it is claimed.
Changes have been discussed with the international federations of each sport to ensure the new venues meet Olympic standards. London Games chiefs will then seek final approval from the International Olympic Committee.
A spokesman for the Olympic Delivery Authority, which handles the 2012 building programme, said: "Financial considerations are only a small part of the reason for the proposed changes. Much of what we are trying to do is to improve the operations in the park and the spectator experience."
A spokeswoman for the organising committee, Locog, which liaises with international sports federations, said: "These are proposed changes, nothing has been finalised yet, although we expect IOC approval for the fencing move soon. In some cases, such as the BMX, we are talking about minor changes to the plan."
The original "footprint" of the Olympic Park was agreed two years ago before planning permission was granted. Outside the Park, Olympics chiefs have already shifted the whitewater canoe course after the original venue in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire was found to be heavily contaminated.
Final approval is soon to be given for an alternative mountain bike course in Hadleigh Castle park after the original site in Essex was deemed by international experts to be too flat.
The overall budget for the Games was set last year at £9.3billion, compared with the estimate during the bid five years ago of £3.4 billion. The revised figure includes the £2.7 billion contingency fund, which the Government admits will almost certainly be spent.
Reader views (4)
So Olympic chiefs want to slash costs, eh? Surely the most obvious idea is to abandon plans for the temporary 80,000 seat athletics stadium at Stratford (which looks horrible) and use the new Wembley stadium instead. It is already designed to allow for athletics, is more than big enough and looks great! They could use the Stratford stadium site as a permanent 25,000 capacity athletics stadium instead. They would save the best part of £1billion pounds by doing this!
- Edward, London
Well, here is one suggestion: Abandon plans to spend £12 million on a temporary shooting centre. The idea of building something only to demolish it after the games end, is stupid and environmentally unsound.
- Stuart Andrews, London, UK
Businesses in the Olympic Park area were FORCED to sell their land to the London Development Agency to make way for the Olympic Park at a rate of £1 million per acre because it was deemed to have "industrial planning". However, similar land in the area which was achieving "residential planning" rights was fetching £8 million per acre at the time. If the Olympic Authorities are now saying that they are freeing up some of the land they have acquired to make it available to sell off to developers for residential use, then once they have sold the land, they should re-imburse the former landowners whose land they effectively 'stole' at a knock down price under duress.
- Lance Forman, East London
Who cares?
- John Smith, London
