London 2012 blog

I accompanied Lord McKenzie, Minister in DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) with responsibility for health and safety, and the Chief Inspector of Construction Steve Williams, on a visit to the Olympic Park site yesterday.

For both it was their first opportunity to get some understanding of both the scale and complexity of what we are doing, and to see the level of commitment to ensuring the health and safety of everyone involved.

We began with a meeting in London 2012 HQ, Canary Wharf, where Simon Wright and I, supported by CLM colleagues, made a presentation.

With the new aerial video of the Park, it was easy to give them a good overview including our milestones to Beijing.

The health and safety aspects were of course discussed in some detail, as we explained our efforts to weave these considerations into all the design work now underway.

We then went up Holden Point for a bird’s eye view from the eastern side, and finished the visit at the HQ of the enabling works, meeting people on site and looking at the careful work being done to recover and reuse materials from demolition.

The Minister was clearly impressed, asking if we would be willing to help him explain to other Government Departments how good health and safety is good for projects, keeping them to time and budget as well as looking after the people doing the work.

We agreed, but only if it didn’t take too much time away from our day job!