World-class contractors are currently being selected to start creating the 100 hectare park on track this spring.

The ODA is already transforming the Olympic Park site, much of it contaminated through years of industrial neglect, to create the parklands that will provide a colourful setting and festival atmosphere for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and beyond.

Visitors to the park during the Games will enjoy broad sweeping lawns and footpaths leading down to riverbanks, ample seating and public spaces throughout the park with live screens showing the sporting action. In legacy the Olympic Park will be a new green space for people and wildlife and will host the London 2012 legacy sports facilities.

London 2012 Organising Committee Chair Seb Coe said: 'This is fantastic news and another important landmark for the project. The Olympic Park will be the heartbeat of the Games in 2012, home to world class sport and a vibrant centre of the celebrations at Games-time. After the Games, the entire area will be regenerated and rejuvenated benefiting the city and its inhabitants for generations to come.'

Olympic Delivery Authority Project Sponsor for Parklands and Public Realm John Hopkins said: 'This gives the green light to a great new park that will be both a fantastic backdrop for the Games and the heart of the regeneration of east London. We have almost finished cleaning the Olympic Park site, much of it contaminated through decades of industrial use, and this spring we will start the process of transforming the area into a new green space for people and wildlife.'

Tom Russell, LDA Group Director for Olympic Legacy, said: 'The Park will be the centrepiece for east London's regeneration. Our legacy masterplanning team have been working closely with the parkland design team to ensure that parkland facilities are developed alongside the overall legacy plans to serve new and existing communities in east London.

'We are currently consulting on those plans which set the framework for homes, parkland, schools, workspace, health and sporting facilities to be built on the Olympic site after the 2012 Games.'

The ODA is currently procuring contractors to start creating the parklands this spring:
All of these opportunities will be procured through CompeteFor, which can be accessed through the London 2012 Business Network at www.london2012.com/business

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Notes to Editors

1. Digital impressions of the parklands can be downloaded at http://mm.gettyimages.com/mm/nicePath/locog?nav=pr118568509

2. LDA Design • Hargreaves Associates was selected to design the Olympic Park parklands in spring 2007. The team includes: Buro Four, LDA Design Ecology, the University of Sheffield, Field GB, TEP, Sarah Price Landscapes, Sutton Vane, Fulcrum Consulting and Centre for Accessible Environments.

3. The ODA is working with the London Development Agency (LDA) to ensure the parklands fit into the Legacy Masterplan Framework - a spatial plan for the development of the Olympic Park site after the 2012 Games.

For further information please contact the Olympic Delivery Authority Press Office on +44 (0)20 3 2012 700.

The construction of the venues and infrastructure of the London 2012 Games is funded by the National Lottery through the Olympic Lottery Distributor, The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Mayor of London and the London Development Agency.

Find out the latest from London 2012 HQ on our blog.

• Bam Nuttall was appointed last year to manage the delivery of the northern section of parklands and procure packages for the whole of the park including 2000 mature and semi-mature trees and plants for the wetlands and river edges, with suppliers due to be appointed for both packages in the coming months.
• In the next few months the contractor will begin procuring soft landscaping, hard landscaping and ground works contracts.
• A contract to manage the delivery of the south of the park will be issued at the end of this year.
• This spring a contractor will be appointed to deliver the regeneration of the Greenway, a 3km walking and cycling route which runs from Victoria Park to West Ham.