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Boris reads the riot act over London 2012 site
Pippa Crerar and Anne McElvoy, Evening Standard10.06.08
Boris Johnson criticised London Olympics chiefs today for failing to come up with a "legacy masterplan" for the 2012 Games site.
The Mayor said there was "no sign" that any senior figures had seriously looked at the options and it was time they "got their skates on".
In an interview with the Evening Standard, he set out his credentials as a cost-cutter who would make sure Londoners got value for money from major projects.
He pledged to set up a working group to look at the future of the Olympic sporting venues, including the main stadium and the aquatics centre.
"There's no point in sinking all of this money into east London unless actually it is going to produce a long-term return," he said.
Mr Johnson was speaking ahead of a report by his Olympics adviser David Ross this week that will examine the budget for the Games. His remarks are the first sign of a split between City Hall and Olympic bosses over progress.
The Mayor admitted he was worried about some budget projections and would be considering what savings could be made. The ticking timebomb of the Games' finances is likely to be the projected value of land in the Olympic Park in Stratford after 2012.
"What we need is to have a complete overview of what on earth we're trying to achieve on the Olympics site and what in the long term is this really all about," said Mr Johnson.
"So far, there's absolutely no sign of what you call a legacy masterplan. There's no sign of anybody who has looked at this and said, 'Right, this is going to be London's Hyde Park of the east, this is going to be a university site.' No one has taken it and said this is the future.
"I want to carve out a group that will actually be responsible, will look at the ultimate intentions, which are to make sure we get value. We need to get our skates on and work out what this thing is going to be for in the long term."
Mr Johnson admitted he faced "tensions" between setting out his own vision of the 2012 legacy and keeping costs down as building work was already under way.
He said: "The difficulty for me is the more we start to reconfigure in our imaginations what we think the ultimate goal of the site is, the more we have to think are that media centre and that stadium and that aquatic centre and the village suitable for our legacy? Then you start telling the Olympic Delivery Authority maybe we should be doing this in such and such a way and then immediately you start getting the problem of the builders of saying, 'Oh, if you want to respecify that, it's going to cost you the earth.'"
The Mayor singled out the main stadium and the aquatics, equestrian and media centres as being of particular concern and raised the prospect of transforming them into visitor attractions after 2012.
He said Zaha Hadid's design of the aquatics centre would make it difficult to transform it into a leisure facility with a "gigantic curlywurly slide". There was no "convincing" long-term future for the main stadium as a home for athletics, a claim which could put him at odds with Olympics chief Lord Coe, who has insisted there should be an athletics legacy.
Instead, Mr Johnson suggested the stadium could be used by a football club, although with West Ham ruling itself out on financial grounds it is highly unlikely this would be a Premiership side. He claimed "nobody has got a clue yet" about the future of the £490million media centre in Hackney but said possibilities included a huge market, university or home to "sunrise" industries.
The Mayor's remarks will be felt particularly keenly in his own London Development Agency, which has been in charge of the legacy masterplan but has not yet signed up a single tenant for after the Games.
Mr Johnson also made his strongest commitment yet to cutting the mayoral precept of the council tax, which currently raises more than £900 million a year.
"Obviously I want to bear down on the contribution that Londoners are making. I think it is outrageous that it went up so much. There is scope for savings," he said. However, he insisted he would not cut the police budget, which makes up about 80 per cent of the precept. The Mayor, who was elected on a pledge to give Londoners "more bang for their buck", said there were "very considerable" savings to be made but was reluctant to divulge where until his forensic audit panel produces its final report. "There's a lot of work to be done," he said.
"What we certainly can do, and what we are doing, is making economies on some of the more grandiose things ... obviously there will have to be changes and there will be economies.
"You will see lots of things gradually being pruned. I'm sure that on a budget of £11 billion there are going to be savings of considerably more than £10 million."
Mr Johnson is reviewing City Hall's international offices, has scrapped The Londoner newspaper and has dropped plans to send a Routemaster bus overland to Beijing for the Olympics this summer.
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Reader views (10)
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Interesting to see how the Labour trolls come out for this having failed to comment on the disaster that was the Millennium Dome - a legacy that was trashed for 1p. Boris is spot on as usual and it is time projects like this were properly run and properly thought through. Voting Boris in may prove to be one of Londoners' best decisions yet. It is so refreshing to have a rational politician who speaks his mind and doesn't hide behind spin.
- Watervole, Twickenham
I can accept that the Mayor, having only been in his job a few weeks and having had very little to do with London prior to his election, would be oblivious to the enormous amount of work going on within the LDA - which has a legacy directorate - as well as the five host boroughs, to plan exactly what Boris is demanding here. But why were your journalists ignorant of it? Having done much to get Boris elected, are we now to expect pandering, unchallenging interviews from the Standard over the course of his term? Boris comments make him seem utterly ignorant of the work that has been going on. The legacy master plan is well under way, consultations are due on it soon and its time frame for completion is mid 2009. He doesn't seem to know any of this but your journalists, if they're worth their salt, should have. Get informed, you owe it to your readers.
- Allister Hayman, London, UK
"Anyone can have a pop but Boris hasn't done anything to fix the problem.
- Dan, London"
Oh come on Dan isn't that what he is trying to do now - you obviously don't like him, fine your are entitled to your opinion, but at least give him a chance.
- Colin Foster, London UK
