Olympic-sized betrayal

By , Thursday, 23 September 2010, 16 Comments

I’m starting a campaign here, now. Please join. It’s this: Together we can shame the organising committee of the 2012 Olympic Games – Locog – into doing what they promised when we won the Games: That the marathon would go through east London and like all Olympic marathons end in the athletics stadium. They are on the point of betraying their promises and the people of east London and they can and must be stopped.

I have some previous in this matter. Almost four years ago I wrote, with my colleague Dr Gary Cox, an Olympic Strategy for Tower Hamlets. Having been the CEO between 1998 and 2003 of the Thames Gateway London Partnership, I was a long-time advocate of investment in east London and thus familiar with the terrain, the community and their needs - as well as the opportunities for London and, indeed, the UK in London’s modern development coming eastwards.

It is no exaggeration to say that the regeneration case we in east London made formed a fundamental plank in winning the bid for the Games. The “legacy” was at the heart of the case. And having the marathon go through Aldgate down past Whitechapel and on to Stratford was a jewel in that particular crown. The marathon route ending in triumph in Stratford was meant to showcase the “new east London” and symbolise the fact that the east was now an integral part of the modern capital.

Locog are on the point, astoundingly and shamefully, of changing the route and breaking their word to east London. The route will not now pass by some of the most disadvantaged and diverse communities in the UK – communities whose “cohesion” within the nation is a vital objective and was meant to be enhanced by the Games but who are now made marginal by this shocking decision. Unless all of us get stuck in and stop it.

The origin of this change seems to be TV sponsors demanding more photogenic or lucrative backdrops for advertising. Dr Cox will tell them how unattractive the last few miles to Homebush were in the Sydney Olympics but no-one demanded a change in the route.  The Athens marathon went through some decidedly squalid environments and few complainmed – certainbly not athletes or the local communities exposed to one of the sporting glories of the era.

Locog must not give in to sponsors and break their word to the communities of east London – and probably the International Olympic Committee. I’m using this blog to ask people to write to or phone Locog to complain and resist. I’m asking those who have lobbied for these Games on regeneration grounds to come together again to beat these guys.

Politicians who care about east London have already started kicking off. Boris needs to come out in support of the existing route – all his development plans for London require the marketing of East London. Locog are wrecking the marketing effort for east London. Four years ago Dr Cox and I wrote: “The Games can show off or show up a city”.

If this decision stands it will be the latter, not the former. Fight it. Please respond.

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  • Gary Cox

    The Olympic Marathon will be part of the imprint of the Games on London. Amsterdam had the Olympics in 1928. The marathon was won by the French-Algerian El Ouafi. Future city marathons have followed the same 1928 course – as did the 1998 Gay Games Marathon.

    As Tim and I said in our Tower Hamlets Olympic Strategy, the marathon is the crowning glory of the Games with its historic ties to the Ancient Olympiad and since the first London Olympics in 1908 has been the finale sporting event, with the race finishing in the Olympic Stadium just before the start of the Closing Ceremony.

    This will be a sorry loss for East London and disquietingly hint that we all don’t quite believe in the area’s regeneration as a legacy of the Games.

  • RKH

    To be honest, as somebody living in the ‘frozen north’ of the east midlands, I really couldn’t care where the cockney marathon starts/finishes. I’m more worried about the disastrous affect the Comprehensive (non-) Spending Review is going to have on our local communities (thanks again, London) rather than some running competition – how many jobs will that create? Perhaps it should finish in Albert Square.

  • John Bull

    I think you’ll find that Albert Square is a fictional place in a soap opera.

  • RKH

    John Bull – no, really?

  • Arraitch

    JB – maybe RKH was referring to the Albert Square in Lambeth SW8?

  • Chris
  • Sarah Palmer

    Back to the point… I’ll join the campaign!
    With the legacy already teetering, and a fair amount of disillusionment, they need to be sticking to as many of the commitments as they can, not shrugging them off!
    And I write as a midlander who cares!

  • http://www.highstreet2012.com Ben Pearce

    Thanks for this Tim. LOCOG announced this news on the day we finished the first phase of the Historic Buildings Conservation Scheme at Aldgate, a key milestone of High Street 2012. They’re happy to use (and cash in on) the poverty and deprivation of the East End to win the games, then desert us for TV pounds at the last minute when it comes to putting the marathon on.

    ps. RKH – the marathon is not the London or cockney Marathon, its the Olympic one for the whole world. Also, lest we forget London’s contribution to the rest of UK economy- e.g. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23728830-london-set-for-business-rates-rise-to-subsidise-rest-of-uk.do

    • http://regenwilliams.wordpress.com Tim

      Well put Ben. You remember I was involved with the High Street 2012 when it was in our view The Olympic Boulevard. Part of the attraction behind the Boulevard/High Street 2012 concept was that the Olympic Marathon went up it.. It’s just simply disgusting that LOCOG can contemplate changing the route -and extraordinary if the rest of us do nothing and let them get away with it. I firnly believe they can be stopped by action and lobbying now by local leaders, business leaders MPs and indeed the Legacy Company taking this on.Re LOCOG:the bigger they are the harder they fall. We should also be writing to the IOC.

  • RKH

    Ben – it’s not the UK economy that concerns in me, it’s the regional economy in the east mdilands that will take a big hit from the cuts because policy-makers in London don’t care about anything north of Watford. Whitehall is even contemplating handing back our ERDF because it won’t let us match fund it – but as you say, where the Olympic marathon finishes should be so much more important to the 4 million people of the east mids.

    • http://regenwilliams.wordpress.com Tim

      I’m sypmathetic to the broader argument here and have made the point several times that no government had had a serious regional growth policy for economies outside the southeast. I’m just appalled at this high handedness from LOCOG and determined to scupper it!

  • Edward Harkins

    RKH are you maybe, with respect, making a cheap an’ easy point at the expense of Tim’s commendable campaigning on this issue?

    The fact that there is a bigger and unfair-to-the-regions picture does not detract from the point about the arrogant and tawdry dismissal of undertakings to the east London communities (and, as pointed out, to the whole thing about regeneration as a part-justification for the Olympics bid).

    Tim has a respectable track record on the absence of regional policy in the UK.

    I don’t know so much about those “from the frozen north’ of the east midlands”, but as someone from the even more northern Lanarkshire in Scotland (where it’s awfully nice and sunny today), I want to see as much as possible of solidarity and alliances-building in support of disadvantaged communities across the UK.

    And RKH, again with respect, if you are concerned about the east midlands economy it’s not tenable to say “it’s not the UK economy that concerns in me” (sic).
    You cannot divorce the two concerns (that’s the kind of thinking that gave us to the dominant south-east England policy distortions).

    So let’s keep on track here (no pun intended).

  • Holly

    And let’s not also forget that the London Marathon annually runs predominantly in east London with a particularly gruelling stretch up and back down the Highway. If east London is good enough for this international, annual event, then certainly why not for the Olympics?

  • DG

    This is an appalling and potentially very damaging decision which contradicts the essence of the bid and must be overturned. I am particularly concerned about the impact it could have on the image of East London to UK and overseas investors. I read this morning a former athlete stating she understood why Eastenders were disappointed but thinks LOCOG has made the right decision as she would want a “good crowd along the way and a fast course”! I have no doubt the marathon along Whitechapel Road would draw in a large and enthusiastic crowd not least because it’s the only free Olympic competition. And as most local residents will not get the opportunity to see any of the major events this is their only opportunity to feel a part of this great event.

  • Liane

    Thanks Tim, a chronically poor decision that has all the hallmarks of an arrogant and patronisingly out of date attitude towards East London. Shame that all the investment in legacy and improving this small corner of it for the benefit of a 2 week event won’t be able to be conveniently showcased by filming a marathon going through it for 3-4 hours? What does that tell you about their own beliefs in the success of their delivery? If they were that proud and impressed with themselves they would be champing at the bit to show it off. You are right we do need to mobilise and across the spectrum of people who have a stake in this Olympics – i.e., not just politicians and professionals waving policy and budget-speak but individuals, residents,businesses; anyone who believes that when an event of this magnitude is sold to us (by policy and budget speaking politicians and businesses) on the basis of delivering a legacy it should deliver that legacy? Back in the early noughties we were urged on a daily basis to “back the bid” – and we did. Now perhaps we should be urging LOCOG to back the bid – and even remember what it was? We absolutely should not tolerate the daily denudation of the legacy elements; it hugely undermines the Games and it hugely undermines the credibility of those claiming to be delivering it.

  • Adele

    When they picked Stratford they knew what if looked like here in the East End. If they wanted posh sights then why not run it round Knightsbridge and we can finish right outside Harrods! Surely everyone knows there are good and not so good in all large cities!?

    All Olympic Marathons have ended in the Stadiums and so should ours.

    They want people of the East End to volunteer for the games, but why should we, as it won’t be ‘our’ games at all!!!

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