London 2012 blog

I represented LOCOG at one of the ODA’s Olympic Park tours for MPs this morning. Getting the MPs all together at Stratford station was, well, a little tricky, but they were soon on the bus and in the Park, to see the building work first hand and at close range. 

But it’s only when you step back and view the whole Park (such as from the ODA’s 6th floor viewing flat, just outside the Park boundary) that you get a better feel for the size of the site, which is bigger than Hyde Park. From the balcony the MPs were understandably - and predictably – quite taken by the sheer scale of the project. All the areas we saw were teeming with builders and diggers all beavering away on the different venue sites. 

Looking down from the viewing flat onto the canal below, MPs spotted that it was covered in a thick bright-green film of algae. It was clearly an algae filtering machine, as it had a proud 'Lean Mean Green Machine' sign stuck to the side. It gallantly set out working its way through the expanse of green sludge, taking on a long strip of the waterway at a time. About 20 minutes later it had almost cleared our stretch of the canal. 

Algae faced by the machine:
 


MPs were clearly impressed as they thought we had organised this clean-up deliberately for them. We hadn't (honest), but the timing was a helpful reminder to press home the delivery of our sustainable promises about London 2012 – from the ODA reusing or recycling 90% of demolition materials on site and transporting building materials to the site by river, to LOCOG’s plans for Games-time food and CO2 emissions.

That done, the MPs drained their cups of tea and headed for Stratford en route to their parliamentary offices – probably dreaming about having a go at driving the lean mean green machine.