The Observer reports that
Olympics budget 'must rise by £2bn'Huge cash injection needed to make East London site viable after 2012, says Games supremo
Nick Mathiason
Sunday April 2, 2006
The ObserverThe cost of the London Olympic Games has to rise dramatically, according to the man in charge of delivering the sporting event to the capital.
David Higgins, chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), signalled that the £1bn infrastructure budget earmarked will inevitably increase.
[...]
Higgins, the former head of the regeneration agency English Partnerships, refused to put a price on how much the new infrastructure would cost. But he indicated that at least £3bn in total would be needed, taking the overall bill for the Games from £3.4bn to £5.4bn.[...]
A new budget for the Games is being fashioned by the ODA and accountant KPMG, and is due to be finalised this summer. Any funding increase would hit budgets in transport and housing ministries. Fears will grow that the UK taxpayer, National Lottery players or even London council tax payers will foot the bill. But Higgins is adamant that the private sector will contribute to the Games.
The politicians, bureaucrats and property speculators who seem to be already milking the Olympic Games at the expense of the London taxpayer, should be facing criminal charges and fines for every penny they go over the original cost estimate.
What would be so difficult in trimming this bloated project back to what was originally presented to the ICO ?
Talk of "pribvate sector investment" is rubbish - how can they make sensible ivestment decisions when the Olympic Development Agency has hit the East End of London with planning blight and bureaucratic red tape and Ken Livingstone spends his time in futile negotiations with property developers, who he then personally insults in public ?
What confidence can anyone have that even the bare minimum of required sports stadia will be completed on time and to budget, given that it is the notorioius Tessa "9 mortgages" Jowell who is the Minsiter in charge of the Government Department responsible, the one one which brought us the disaster of the Millennium Dome in Greenwhich and which has contributed to the disaster of the Wembley Stadium ?
The class system has relied on East London for centuries (and to date) to be the land of bad odours, pollution, contaminated lands, blighting, claustrophobic power lines, complex river systems, poor education levels, health, unemployment, housing and I hate to add, etc to the problems now.
I am a film-maker making a documentary about the coming situation of East London and I am looking for people to participate in a series of interviews on location. I would be delighted to hear from anyone that is interested. Of course it would never get to TV but I will be screening it at the Royal College of Art in June. Many thanks.
The London Debate is taking place at ITV studios on Wednesday 10th May. They need people with your opinions and concerns to take part and voice our concerns directly to the Mayor.
Questions need to be answered but they need to be asked first. Email stateoflondondebate@itv.com.
Thank you
Can you please post your email? Id like to get in contact with you regarding your documentary project. Thanks.
London 2012 is threatening to 'delete' my domains, and refuse to purchase any domains I bought a long time ago. In addtion, they want to close down my business. What are the laws from the Office of Fair Trading and the Monopolies Act?
My company will suffer, my investment will be wiped out, employment will be lost, charities will suffer.
How powerful are these guys that they can destroy their own people?
@ Pin - which domains exactly ?
The releveant legislation is the new London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006
Surely no actual Regulations ghave yet been published under this Act ?