Legacy company defends Olympic venues timetable

Kay Atwal, Chief Reporter Thursday, May 31, 2012
11:56 AM

The London legacy company has denied claims made by Labour London Assembly member John Biggs that all Olympic Park venues will remain closed until Easter 2014.

Mr Biggs criticised an announcement by Olympic officials that the public would not be able to use all the Olympic venues until at least Easter 2014.

A spokeswoman for the London Legacy Development Corporation said: “It is not true that the whole Park will remain closed until Easter 2014. The intention has always been to open the Park in phases as we want to get people onto the Park as quickly as possible after the Games.

“The North part of the Park, including the Multi-Use Arena will be opened exactly one year after the Games and as announced by the Mayor there will be a two day festival of cycling in August 2013 – which will involve around 100,000 people visiting the Park. The remainder of the North Park will reopen by the end of 2013, this will include the VeloPark and the Lee Valley Tennis and Hockey Centres. By Easter 2014 parts of the North Park will have been open to the public for almost a year. We will then open the South Park including the Aquatics Centre and the ArcelorMittal Orbit with a grand opening event.

“Given the scale of the transformation works needed this is a challenging timetable but we are committed to getting people into the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as soon as the building works are complete and it is safe for them to enjoy. We are also on track to reopen the Stadium as planned in August 2014, there are no delays to our planned Park reopening schedule.”