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Olympic Games bosses find jobs for only 115 of the unemployed
Amar Singh and Matthew Beard10 Jun 2009
Only 115 unemployed east Londoners have had jobs on the construction of the Olympic Park, it emerged today.
Figures from the Olympic Delivery Authority show that 20 per cent of the 4,101 workers at the Olympic Park are from the five surrounding boroughs - and of these, just 115 were unemployed.
Ministers have claimed the Games will regenerate the five "Olympic boroughs" - Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest - which include some of Britain's most deprived neighbourhoods.
Dee Doocey, Lib-Dem London Assembly spokeswoman on economic development, said: "The work the Olympic Delivery Authority is doing in training is superb but the targets they have set for local unemployed people put back into work are too low."
Sebastian Coe, chairman of the 2012 organising committee, has asked the International Olympic Committee to break with the tradition of calling the Games the "best ever" to make sure it delivers its legacy promises.
Lord Coe spoke at a meeting of 400 residents in Walthamstow, also attended by Mayor Boris Johnson.
He said: "Come back to this city five years later and declare them truly a great games when they see what we have done to drive sports participation and legacy."
Last night's meeting at Walthamstow Assembly Hall aired questions on the use of £1billion of taxpayers' money to build sports venues, local sports facilities and poor public transport links.
The Mayor's new Olympic legacy chief, Baroness Margaret Ford, answered audience concerns by guaranteeing access to sports facilities after the Games.
Reader views (8)
I have been paying taxes since i started work as a apprentice joiner, 16 years ago, i am from Morecambe & there is no work were i live Morecambe its a dicrace & the council has run it into the ground, i got the train to London & went into Camden Job center to be told that the jobs are being avertised from Stratford for the olypic games, when i went into stratford they told me that because i wasnt living in the bourogh i couldnt work on the olypics i needed utility bills from a local adress for the last three months,
What a discrace, the country i live in is a failure, i didnt even feel as if it was England and to think we have good soldiers dying for this country makes me sick, i was in a queue which was out the door in Stratford job center & and a gentleman infront of me could register because he couldnt decide whether he was something mohammed or mohammed something, maybe he got the job???
This country is a complete Joke an i am not proud of being English anymore, no jobs and the jobs there are have been taken by, people who have not paid into the system.
- Paul, lancaster, 05/04/2010 18:34
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I WAS ONE OF THE 115 EMPLOYED .BEEN LAID OFF WHY ?
YOU COULD NOT WRITE ABOUT WHATS HAPPING ON THAT PARK
THERE WOULD BE A ROIT IF ANY HAD THE GUTS to speak out.
I DO 100 MILLION ?
- Chris, LEYTONSTONE, 14/07/2009 15:55
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I am unemployed in thurrock have all quilications for a job on the olypimics but cannot get a job there because i dont live in the Tower Hamlets catchtment area whitch i can comute to the sites in 40 mins.Should"it be equal oppertunitys for all the unemployed in the whole of Great Britian, and not a closed shop.
- S.W. Thurrock, Essex England, 03/07/2009 17:21
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They should poll local residents. Would you prefer:
a) reduction of council tax?
b) better council services?
c) a velodrome?
- The Masked Avenger, hammersmith, 10/06/2009 16:23
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Maybe there is a chance that some unemployed people in East London don't want to work. Just visit the Stratford Centre and have a look.
- David, London, 10/06/2009 15:54
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East Londoners having been banging on about this for the past couple of years, the place is bursting with Eastern Europeans.
No Jobs for our boys in the building game, they have lied about this from day one. Anther fine labour balls up.
- Mrs, London UK, 10/06/2009 14:17
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It was blatantly obvious from day one that they lied and cheated in order to win the bid. Having won it tax payers are now left with debt which they will be repaying for the next fifty years. It was never a priority to provide jobs for the unemployed in East London - the main reason for wanting to host the games was seen as a means of bringing a few "has been" athletes back onto the front pages of newspapers.
- R.F., Yorks, UK, 10/06/2009 12:41
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Another Labour promise lies in tatters - Helping its unemployed voters of Tower Hamlets to find work.
Can they do anything other than put up taxes and ruin an economy?
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, 10/06/2009 11:58
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