London 2012 blog

Last week I went to Hackney to meet a group of young people who have been chosen to be part of the Olympic Delivery Authority's (ODA) Construction Crew.

Read more of “Video: Construction Crew learn about Olympic Park”

I was at an event this morning at the site of the new Stratford City shopping centre development with the Mayor of London. Boris unveiled a clock counting down to the opening of the centre in March 2011 - 912 days from now:

Read more of “Lasting legacy for Londoners before the Games begin”

This morning I was at the VeloPark in Beijing where the British flag is flying proud after the extraordinary success of Team GB. It was extremely useful to see how Mountain Biking, BMX and Track Cycling have all been integrated - for example the power and media requirements, along with the back of house facilities - so that we can take that learning back to London.

British cyclists Paul Manning, Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins compete at the Beijing 2008 Games:

Read more of “Team GB cyclists setting standards for London 2012 venue”

I was delighted to accept an invitation from Sports Minister Richard Caborn MP to speak at the UK Trade & Investment’s Global Sport Conference last week.

The conference was a good opportunity to tell some of the leading figures from sports and industry about the excellent progress we have made over the past year – our Transport Plan is in place; the Olympic Park Masterplan has been locked down; major demolition work on the site has begun; and the planning application for the Olympic Park has been submitted which outlines our vision for one of the largest new urban parks in Europe for 150 years.

This year we are focused on clearing the site, cleaning up the land, securing planning permission for the park, preparing the site for building, and locking down detailed designs for venues. It is an important step forward and what I call “Making the Park 3D – Demolition, Dig, Design”.

Read more of “Delivering the 3Ds”

Yesterday, along with Paul Deighton, I gave a speech at a sports legacy conference in London attended by several hundred delegates involved in planning major sports events around the world.

Both Paul and I were keen to emphasise our strong focus on planning a lasting legacy from the Games at this very early stage – five-and-a-half years before the Games begin.

We have already done the work to effectively ‘lock-in’ legacy. The planning application we submit for the Park in the next few days will illustrate this - outlining how the Park will be designed, the new roads, bridges, open spaces, utilities and waterways that will create a whole new urban park.

Read more of “Locking in legacy”