Boris Johnson appears to be winning the vote count to become new mayor of London.Boris Johnson Edges Ken Livingstone in Mayoral Election
Boris Johnson will be the new mayor of London, according to the latest results from today's election count.
The Tory MP won enough of the votes in the 14 constuencies to end Ken Livingstone's eight-year reign. Liberal Democrat ex-police commander Brian Paddick will come in third.
In his four-year term, Johnson will play a pivotal role in preparations for London 2012 with important decisions to be made on Olympic legacy and regeneration planning for the capital.
He will co-chair the Olympic Board that oversees the development of the 2012 Games project. The Board also includes Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, British Olympic Association Chairman Colin Moynihan and LOCOG chair Sebastian Coe.
The Olympic Board provides oversight, strategic coordination and monitoring of the entire 2012 Games venture, ensuring the delivery of the commitments made to the International Olympic Committee. It usually meets monthly, with the chair alternating between the mayor and the Olympics minister.
Johnson, a Conservative maverick, is not certain to guide London through the Olympics; the next London mayoral election would take place less than three months before the 2012 Games.
Johnson's ousting of Livingstone rounds off a disastrous 24 hours for Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Labour Party, who suffered heavy losses in local elections across England and Wales.
Brown described it as a “bad and disappointing” election for Labour, as the party suffered its worst council results in at least 40 years. Labour lost more than 300 council seats.
It is estimated that 2.4m Londoners voted in the mayoral election. The turnout was estimated at 45% - up from 37% in 2004.
Olympic Stadium Still Needs Permanent Tenants
London 2012 legacy planners reject suggestions that they are struggling to find permanent tenants to move into the Olympic Stadium after the Games. With construction work on the 80,000-seat centerpiece of the Olympic Park due to start in three weeks, 2012 officials appear to be no closer to securing football and rugby tenants.
After the Games, London 2012 officials have committed to downsizing the $1 billion stadium to 25,000 and retaining the track to provide a multipurpose venue with athletics at its core.
Football and rugby clubs are vital to financing operation and maintenance costs from 2013 onwards.
A spokesman for the London Development Agency denies that there is trouble attracting tenants.
“Negotiations go on,” he tells Around the Rings. “This process still has a way to go and is progressing.”
“We are still in discussion with [London football club] Leyton Orient. Not exclusive discussions, we are open to other options with football,” he said, adding that at least three meetings had been held with the club over the last six to nine months.
Leyton Orient is a club with big ambitions but average gates well below their 9,200-capacity ground. Still, it remains the most viable football club to be rehoused at the Olympic Stadium.
West Ham United's hopes of moving to the arena post-2012 were abandoned in early 2007 when the Premier League club was told that the stadium would primarily become an athletics venue with 10,000 fewer seats than their current home.
The LDA is also hunting a rugby club to share the stadium with football, while discussions with UK Athletics are continuing about how the venue can best be used for community usage and athletics events after 2012.
“We are approaching rugby clubs. I believe there has been interest,” said the LDA official, who declined to mention any names.
The search for stadium tenants is part of wider legacy planning and regeneration objectives. The Olympic Delivery Authority is one of the legacy partners.
In January, KCAP Architects & Planners, Allies Olympics minister Tessa Jowell has spelled-out the reasons why the $19 billion funding package is higher than original estimates. (Getty Images)& Morrison and EDAW were appointed as the master planners for the Olympic site, charged with delivering the Legacy Masterplan Framework next year.
The LDA spokesman said some legacy proposals for the Olympic Park site and its environs would be put out to public consultation from this summer onwards, working “hand-in-hand with business plans for the venues”.
Jowell Hits Back at Critics
Olympics minister Tessa Jowell has denied that she misled Parliament and the public about the true cost of the 2012 Games.
“I did not mislead anyone. I made it very clear to Parliament that if we were successful in bidding for the games, we would have to review the budget,” she said. “That is exactly what we did.”
Writing in The Guardian Friday, she added: “Yes, the funding package is higher than the original estimates. But there are very good reasons for this.
“For example, it simply was not possible before we were awarded the games to fully survey the huge Olympic Park site, digging up the gardens of private homes or concrete floors of businesses to be fully aware of how contaminated the ground was and how big our task is.
“We did not deliberately omit or somehow forget about VAT,” she said.
“When the budget was being developed, LOCOG chief executive Paul Deighton and ODA chief executive David Higgins toured the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy Friday.the delivery body that would build the venues and infrastructure did not exist. We could not therefore have determined its tax status at that stage.”
Last week, the government's financial watchdog criticized Jowell and her colleagues for underestimating the bill for the 2012 Olympics, claiming bid book costs were “entirely unrealistic”.
This week, the government Culture, Media and Sport select committee attacked 2012 organizers for being “willing to spend money like water”.
The committee report on the Olympics praises progress made by LOCOG, the Olympic Delivery Authority and the London Development Agency, but criticizes the government's funding and planning for the Games.
The 17,500-seat Aquatics Center comes in for most criticism due to a tripling in costs of the project. The venue will cost $480 million; up from the $150 million bid book figure.
“It appears to be over-designed... and an expensive way of providing the facilities for water sports needed during and after the Games,” the report said.
“The history of the Aquatics Center shows a risible approach to cost control and that the Games organisers seem to be willing to spend money like water.”
However, the report said it expected the Olympics to be delivered “comfortably within budget”, referring to the $19 billion funding package announced by Jowell in March 2007.
Jowell defended the “very substantial investment of public money”, saying it was going on “the biggest regeneration project in Europe” and would benefit millions for generations to come.
Work Starts on Sailing Venue
Construction has started on the first venue outside the Olympic Park, with work underway to enhance the sailing facilities at Weymouth and Portland.
The Olympic and Paralympic sailing events will be hosted at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy in south-west England.
The Olympic Delivery Authority and its contractor Dean & Dyball have begun enhancing the existing facilities with the construction of a permanent 250m slipway and race-boat parking, lifting and mooring facilities.
Work is due to finished by the end of 2008, making it the first venue to be ready for the 2012 Games.
Meanwhile, the ODA has awarded the contract to design a key cluster of venues and facilities in the north of the Olympic Park to Stanton Williams.
McNicholas has secured contracts for the water, gas, telecoms ducts and electrical civils networks across the Olympic Park site. They were among a series of key utilities contracts awarded by the ODA this week.
London 2012 Recruits Head of Brand
LOCOG names Amanda Jennings as the new head of brand and marketing. She is the former head of sponsorship and partnerships at O2.
With reporting from Mark Bisson.
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