Mayor aims for total control of 2012 legacy
London Mayor Boris Johnson is set to take complete control over what will happen to the after the Games.
The Mayor today announced , including a reform of the (OPLC).
The OPLC was set up last year as a company half owned by the Mayor and half owned by the Government.
This meant that any major decision, such as the future of the main stadium, needed the approval of Johnson, the Olympics Minister and the Communities Secretary, who handles regeneration issues.
The new plans mean the Mayor has complete control over the OPLC which will be reformed as a Mayoral Development Corporation.
Forget all the names of these bodies.
What matters is that Johnson will now decide whether or whether it is going to become a new centre for pop concerts.
He has the only veto over any proposals put forward by legacy officials.
With this, of course, comes more risk for London. If everything goes wrong and London is left with a Park of white elephants, it is likely to be harder for Johnson to go begging to the Government for more cash to pay for the mess since Whitehall will have had no say in the decisions.
But it's not all negative. I understand the people in power in the Olympic Park Legacy Company agree with the move because it will make it much easier to negotiate deals.
Companies keen to invest in the Park won't have to go and get the Government's approval as well as the Mayor's.
So will it change the future of the Park?
Well, we know that Boris is more flexible on letting a football club into the stadium than his predecessor was.
We also know that he is determined to strike deals which work financially. Under these new plans, he is going to be even more determined to focus on the bottom line because he has total responsibility for the Park's future.
We'll have to see whether that means the promises of the bid - such as a major athletics legacy - will be watered down in the rush to make sure the Park doesn't lose money.
I'm 91Èȱ¬ London's Olympics Correspondent, which means I report on every aspect of the preparations for 2012. I'm going to be telling you what people are saying about London's preparations - both in the Olympic corridors of power and on the streets of the capital - and I want to hear your views.
Comment number 1.
At 16th Jun 2010, Andy wrote:As a further comment to this, with the Mayor elections due in May 2012, surley it would be good to have everything settled before then, so everything is sorted going into olympics year. Boris should call elections a year early in 2011, then whoever wins will have been in office for over a year and be up to speed on everything when the world turns its eyes on London.
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Comment number 2.
At 16th Jun 2010, rjaggar wrote:I guess the key question about this is who monitors the Mayor's decisions and what, if any, rights of appeal exist?
I do hope he realises that Hyde Park is economically untenable per se and you'd make much more money building luxury houses on it. I don't think Londoners would want that to happen though......
I guess if scrutiny is firm but fair the likelihood of bent decisions reduces.
And I hope he realises that when you count fun runs, 10ks, half marathons etc etc that athletics is already a mass participation sport in this country. So for football to try and claim otherwise would be lying at best......
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Comment number 3.
At 18th Jun 2010, Euloroo wrote:All of the recent proposals to devolve power to the Mayoralty as weel as ditch the Goverment Office for London make a lot of sense. Ironic coming from the Tories.
In terms of legacy, I imagine watering down will be par for the course - probably with most people's blessing in the current climate. But to not leaving a viable atheltics stadium?
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