London 2012 blog

Today marked another step along the way for the Planning Decisions Team when we opened our planning reception 'shop' in Burford Rd.

It has been lots of work over the last few months getting ourselves set up as a planning office and of course renting a space for ordinary members of the public to come to to see the Olympic Park planning applications and to speak to the planners about any queries they might have.

The shop needed quite a lot of work done to it to adapt it to make sure it had all the space we needed for staff and the public, including space for all those hundreds and hundreds of drawings.

With everything ready, we asked the Chair of the Planning Committee Lorraine Baldry and the Chief Executive David Higgins to come and cut the ribbon to mark the official opening.

Of course that meant all of us in the team rolling up our sleeves and giving the place a good clean to make it look more presentable after the builders had gone, and getting a nice big piece of ribbon!

However we sorted it all out in time, the ribbon was duly cut - that's David, myself, Lorraine and Eryl Smith, Executive Director of the Five Boroughs 2012 Programme doing the honours - and we now have a public reception.

















The event was low key but it did give chance for Lorraine and David to meet some of the team, especially the admin support staff who will be on the reception desk.

Staff also took a few minutes out of a busy day to visit the Stratford City exhibition of the Zonal Masterplan for Zone 1 (the new shopping centre zone) which has been on view in the Old Town Hall in Stratford.

It's important for the PDT staff who are new to the area and the plans to be able to understand not just the Olympic proposals but the Stratford City scheme too.