OLYMPIC organisers yesterday announced new plans for the 2012 Games that will further concentrate facilities and save 95 businesses threatened with being moved from their present site just north of Stratford, in East London.
However, the lawyer for more than 200 firms, many of which still fear compulsory purchase orders (CPOs), claimed that plans for the Olympic Park had been drawn up so as to save compensation money “now that the overrun in the budgets can be perceived”.
The 95 businesses, affecting about 1,200 jobs, will no longer need to be relocated because the temporary car and coach parking on Fish Island, on the edge of the Olympic Park, will be moved to a multistorey car park in nearby Stratford. In addition, new homes will not have to be found for 70 residents in the same area.
“The changes will bring the facilities close together within the Olympic Park, resulting in an improved layout that will make the site even more secure for all users, including athletes and spectators as well as visitors, staff and community,” Lord Coe, chairman of the organising committee, said.
Manny Lewis, chief executive of the London Development Agency (LDA), said: “These improvements will help deliver an enhanced legacy for London and Londoners, which has always been the core of our vision. This will significantly reduce the impact on local businesses.”
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However, a public inquiry still seems inevitable this summer for many of the remaining 206 companies fighting the threat of CPOs unless an agreement can be reached. The LDA is offering firms alternative land on which to build premises or cash payoffs to buy new premises, although many firms have complained that the compensation is inadequate.
Mark Stephens, a partner in Finers Stephens Innocent, the West End firm of solicitors representing the threatened businesses, said: “The spin is that this move will save jobs. However, it has actually been done so that the LDA does not have to pay the cost of the CPO. Many leaseholders in the area will also see their rents go through the roof when the leases come up for renewal. It is a fallacy to say that the move will save jobs.”
The target is to get vacant possession of the main Olympic site by next year so that work can start on the main projects.
Organisers said that the decision to alter the design of the Olympic Park, which will house the main stadium and the aquatics centre, had been approved last week by the IOC and the Government.
David Higgins, chief executive designate of the Olympic Delivery Authority, the body responsible for building the facilities, said that the plans had become possible because of the integration of the Olympic Park and Stratford City projects. The Stratford City development had originally been designed as an independent scheme because there was no guarantee that London would get the 2012 Games.
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One benefit of the new plans is that work on the Olympic Village will be able to start next year and take four years instead of the scheduled maximum of three, so reducing pressure and costs.