News of extra government funding for the London 2012 media centers is welcomed by the local authority where the new buildings will be sited – but not by residents.
The views of Hackney Council are not reflected by some local residents, who have raised major concerns in the wake of last week's announcement.
Residents have seen trees destroyed to accommodate the Olympic Park, live in fear of noise, dust and disruption from construction works, and are skeptical of claims that local people will be employed.
The council has campaigned hard for the International Broadcast Center and Main Press Center to remain in what Olympic planners call Zone 5 of the 2012 park, the northwest corner of the main site in London’s Lower Lea Valley.
Originally earmarked for part funding from the private sector, plans for the centers were threatened by the credit crunch last year before the U.K. government announced an additional $194 million from the Olympic contingency fund last week.
The council has been banking on these buildings – sited in one of the borough’s poorest areas, known as Hackney Wick – to bring a much-vaunted ‘Olympic legacy’ to Hackney residents.
According to Tim Shields, the authority’s chief executive, the media centers “represent the single most significant opportunity for an economic legacy.”
“We have been campaigning for both the MPC and IBC to be permanent buildings in Hackney Wick to support a legacy use for digital, media and creative industries,” he said.
But Charlie Foreman, the council’s chief officer for the Olympics, was forced to admit at a community meeting last week that there was no certainty about this legacy plan, just “absolute passion from Hackney Council to make it happen.”
Local people from Leabank Square, a residential area directly opposite the construction site, have raised concerns in letters and e-mails to the council and Olympic authorities, and on a community blog.
“There are going to be times when a late-running cement truck needs to empty its cargo right opposite Leabank Square and ruin our evening meals with a great lot of noise,” wrote one blogger.
“There are going to be instances of hired cranes having to erect the last few meters of girding well into the evening. There will be disruption and noise and dust and inconvenience.”
Residents describe the Olympic Delivery Authority as “anti-social neighbors” and say Hackney Wick has become “a dustbowl.”
They are also concerned about a high electric fence that will soon replace the blue wooden hoardings surrounding the Olympic Park site, and traffic and transport problems caused by an influx of workers who will enter the site by a local access point.
There is also skepticism about employment prospects for local people. According to the ODA, 23 percent of the 3,000 site workforce come from the five host boroughs. Yet only three percent are from Hackney. Local people claim jobs are only advertised locally for two days before the recruitment net is widened.
With reporting from Matthew Brown
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