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Have your say on London's 2012 legacy
Matthew Beard13 Feb 2009
Londoners will be able to speak out on plans to transform the Olympic Park into six neighbourhoods by 2040.
Planners have come up with a design for the zones, ranging from city centre apartments, to a family-friendly village and an Amsterdam-inspired canalside community.
These areas will all be within the 500-acre Olympic Park in Stratford and are in a "legacy masterplan" which will be used as a planning application once the six week public consultation, which started this week, has finished.
There are a series of events including 13 legacy roadshows across the capital where the public can have their say on the plans.
The roadshows will be held at locations including City Hall, the South Bank Centre and various sites throughout the Olympic Park.
What's planned - click image to enlarge
Jason Prior, of planners EDAW, who have overseen the legacy blueprint, said: "The Olympic Park is equivalent in size to walking from Arsenal's Emirates stadium to Angel Tube station and if you consider the diversity within that area it is possible to imagine what we are trying to achieve."
Development of the land will be a multi-billion pound project and is part of broader regeneration plans for the area including West Ham, Canning Town, Fish Island and the Lea Valley.
Mr Prior said he was undeterred by the current "horrendous" market conditions because of the long-term prospects for the area.
He said: "We have presented the plans to the development community and they are confident that it will be an attractive offer.
"It is rare in London to have a greenfield site with billions of pounds of infrastructure with new utilities and transport and it will be well branded due to the Olympics."
The plan, which has been produced by the London Development Agency in co-operation with the five local boroughs, will form the basis of a planning application for the regeneration schemes.
The planning application is intended to lessen the risk for developers and encourage private sector funding of the legacy projects.
To realise the grand ambition, the public sector money will have to be matched by "billions" of private sector investments over the coming decades, according to the LDA.
They hope to attract developers by overcoming planning hurdles now and splitting the site up into the six distinct investment zones within the park.
Planners stress that these areas will come with permission for a set number and type of houses and public amenities to lure investors.
The project promises seven schools, 10,000 homes and 10,000 jobs, most of them envisaged in technology once the media centre in Hackney Wick is converted after the Games.
The Olympic stadium will serve primarily as an athletics venue afterwards and will be the anchor of the "Olympic quarter" with a sports academy for about 400 secondary school pupils.
Planning permission will be granted by the Olympic Delivery Authority's planning decision team.
This body is made up of ODA board members and representatives from the four boroughs the Olympic Park covers - Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.
Sir Robin Wales, mayor of Newham, said: "These plans to transform the landscape will be accompanied by a Strategic Regeneration Framework to provide homes, parklands and infrastructure, and build successful communities."
Reader views (14)
What is everyone's problem.This redevelopment would have only happened in a small area if it wasn't for 2012.I would rather have London reap the benefits of the Olympics rather than Paris or New York,whatever the cost.
- H.J.Jones, London UK, 08/04/2009 11:26
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Winning the bid was the biggest financial disaster ever to hit this country. The only people who will benefit from this are Livingstone, Jowell and a few "has been" runners who see the games as a means of bringing them back into the headlines. All future plans should be halted and the money directed towards things which will be a real legacy like decent housing, schools and hospitals. Olympic sized stadia are of little use to those living in run down areas. They would much prefer (and would benefit from) decent housing and schools. If the committee persist in going down this disastrous path we will be left with a legacy of astronomical debt which will take decades to repay.
- R.F., Yorks, UK, 15/02/2009 17:08
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And what are the people living in the new cities going to do to earn a living to feed their families?
The industry we used to have in the area is gone. Lesney, LEWCO, Caribonum, Temple Mills, all gone. The last of it was killed in the clearance of the Olympic site - and the building jobs are not going to indigenous born and bred east Londoners.
- Ca Metcalfe, Essex/East London, 15/02/2009 17:03
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Its already been screwed by the sanctimonious agenda of the alledged politicians/self promoting personalities who think by promoting a legacy(ignoring local societies requirements and needs) means it will happen. At the end of the day these -----------/----/ ----- (fill in any definition you will)are probably as guilty as bankers in their misdirection and self pretesions and should be tried for fraud and sentenced as such.
- Slightly Jaded N London., uk, 15/02/2009 03:02
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Brown and Boris fiddle while London burns. What a joke these guys are. We are in a depression and these jokers are planning a party.
- Bernard, London, 14/02/2009 13:10
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I don't know anyone who really cares about most of the events in these Olympics...
Surely we'd be better spending money at grassroots level in sports that really matter to most in this country rather than the posh boys and girls in Sailing and Rowing for example?
A World Cup win will be remembered with much more fondness for years to come than some runner winning a medal in a race.
- Mark, Watford, 13/02/2009 23:29
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would team uk really want the legacy these games will generate. with the legacy of the millennium dome, t5 and a host of other British fiasco's still keeping the world giggling. we don't do super kudos, we just create wealth for lawyers and all those with a vested interest at the expense of the taxpayer and the countries already heavily tarnished reputation.
- M.O'Brien, london.uk, 13/02/2009 17:53
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London Olympics and a legacy? What a joke of a project - Blair, Coe and his cronies have already left us with this poison chalice and now yet more money being poured into cosmetic cheap-thrill palm-offs.
- Essex Ram, Chelmsford Essex, 13/02/2009 16:07
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More broken dreams for the future. What future. There will not be one unless the country's debts are paid off and that will not be for 30 or 40 years.
- albert hall, hove england, 13/02/2009 14:40
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I give it another five years after these plans are built for the area to fall into disrepair and council blocks start being pulled fown.
- Stephen, London, 13/02/2009 13:44
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Don't see any Olympic benefits in this part of Scotland at present, only Olympic costs, so what legacy can we expect to get exactly?
Sunshine subsidised ones.
- Dave From Edinburgh, Edinburgh Scotland, 13/02/2009 11:21
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The LDA and the boroughs need to lead this consultation on Olympic legacy as it is too important to send out the masterplanners on their own to consult with the public.
My experience of masterplanning and development is that wonderful vision statements and plans are produced at significant expense to the taxpayer to wow the public, but little or no on the record evidence of commitment (and funding!) to deliver the masterplan can generally be found to bind the local authorities in to delivering it.
On the above note, it would be a concern if Jason Prior were to be used as the sole spokesman on Olympic legacy. Prior is a consultant who should be there to support a visionary public sector decision maker who leads and brings us along with him/her and who makes on the record commitments that the public bodies he/she represents (and the taxpayer is paying for) can be held accountable for delivering in the future.
- Mike, london, 13/02/2009 11:16
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Well, well,
Is it not time we agreed once and for all a venue for the Olympics: Olympia, maybe?
All national olympics committee would chip in for the investment and the running, helped by global advertisers
We would have a stability and better control on the inflationary trend that had more to do with national egos and nothing to do with sport ideals.
- Kerwood, London, UK, 13/02/2009 11:03
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Great plans but just where will the money come from? I hear that private event sponsors are pulling out due to the recession. One other thought. If the land is sold off too cheaply during the current recession and land
values rocket in value in 2020 - 2030 are the ordinary tax payers getting ripped off again?
- Jim, London, 13/02/2009 10:59
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