As part of a joint LOCOG/ODA team, yesterday I ventured out of Canary Wharf over to Walthamstow for the quarterly London 2012 Forum. Our mission? To introduce our Sustainability Strategy and seek views on specific topics from London representatives. Being
Practising what we preach, we travelled on public transport to the London Borough of Waltham Forest Town Hall.
This was my first pleasant surprise of the day. As you can see from the picture below it is a beautiful and impressive building.
My second surprise of the day was how engaging and welcoming the representatives were.
I felt there was a genuine feeling of enthusiasm and positivism throughout. Although they posed at times difficult questions, they equally understood the difficulties we face in planning and organising the world’s greatest sporting event.
I also felt they really wanted to be involved in shaping the future of their community - particularly the leader of the local council.
We also received some very good and thought provoking ideas and suggestions from the workshop.
As part of the tour around the Olympic Park and surrounding area I realised just how much opportunity for change there is in that particular part of London and how much we still have to do if we are to truly leave a lasting legacy and therefore deliver on our promise of a sustainable Games.
At the end of the day it left me thinking even more about how we can make a difference to the lives of the children who live there, both now and in the future.
