Contents (Click on any item to view)
2012 Games: December consultations at the O2 and in the Park January 2009
The Olympics: public consultations have started November 2008
The Friends help launch the Greenwich Cultural Olympiad November 2008
The Olympics controversy August 2008
Greenwich Park wins Heritage Site award - and fourth Green Flag August 2008
Olympics update: questions from the Friends December 2007
As expected, the Borough wide consultation on Greenwich and the 2012 Games at the O2 on 4 December was a well-orchestrated promotion of all that Greenwich has to offer. Chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), Lord Sebastian Coe, emphasised that the event is - and should be - oriented towards young people.
On the equestrian events in Greenwich Park, an updated map of the cross country route shown by LOCOG’s Equestrian Competition Manager, Tim Hadaway, confirms that as a result of local knowledge and pressure the proposed route no longer goes through the Lake in the Flower Garden. The start and finish are now planned to be at the south (Blackheath) end of the Park, probably on the Bandstand Field and Ranger‘s Field.
The cross country course plan needs to be finalised around the third quarter of 2009 for the planning application to be submitted to Greenwich Council.
There was no official statement from the Friends Olympics sub-committee at the meeting as it has to both express Friends’ objections to the event and to continue to press LOCOG for more information, as made clear at the July Special General Meeting. This was an information gathering occasion.
More information from the consultation week end
Visitors to the Pavilion Tea House over the weekend of 21 November could put their views for and against the equestrian events in the Park to a team from LOCOG. There were complaints about lack of publicity but several hundred people called in during the two days to look at the indicative map of the cross country event and ask questions.
The Friends of Greenwich Park Olympics sub committee and representatives from the three other local amenity societies, Greenwich Society, Westcombe Society and Blackheath Society, together with Nick Raynsford MP, were walked round the proposed cross country course by designer Sue Benson and competition manager, Tim Hadaway. They commented that the design was under almost continuous modification in response to advice from arboriculturalists, archaeologists and other experts.
The LOCOG representatives confirmed that no trees would be felled for the one day cross country course, and the oldest and most important trees would be avoided altogether. On a few trees the canopy will need to be lifted to allow headroom for horses and riders. This will involve only light pruning.
The track will be between 3m and 10m wide, on existing grass, and where it crosses hard paths, mulch will be laid which is then swept up at the end of the event. The track will be delineated with ropes.
The plan is for around 40 jumps, 60% built off site and put in place no more than three days before the event. The others are to be fixed post and rail, but advice will be taken on where it is safe to put in posts without damaging tree roots.
Current thinking is for the course to pass through the Children’s Boating Pond, which would be a water feature, and then through the Playground (though avoiding the area of the swings and slides), both of which would need to be closed for a time. This is a highly sensitive part of the Park, given its popularity with children and parents, and we shall insist on discussing this part of the course in detail with the designer and competition manager, with a view to minimizing both the impact on these facilities and the period of closure.
The competition arena on the south side of the Queen’s House will have a temporary surface and large demountable stands. This area will involve substantial construction work, and is likely to be closed for some period of time. Again, we shall want to discuss the detailed timing of these works, so as to ensure that the closure is kept to the absolute minimum.
Other areas of the Park where non-demountable jumps were planned, and the track itself, will simply be roped off. The rest of the Park should not be affected.
Supporting infrastructure including stables and the warm up arena are planned for the area between the arena and St Mary’s Gate, with VIP hospitality in the Queen’s House, thus obviating the need for marquees. It might be possible to keep the east west path along the Herbaceous Border in front of the Queen’s House open.
Discussions of legacy ideas are under way. They include leaving some of the additional water and power points to help Park maintenance, improvements to the Children’s Playground and renewing the Blackheath Gates.
Reviewing the location for the equestrian events
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games(LOCOG) put out a statement on 19 November 2008 about the location of the equestrian events following a value for money study by KPMG:
‘The Olympic Board has endorsed the following recommendations:
Equestrian events will remain at Greenwich Park.
All three Olympic equestrian events (dressage, cross-country and show jumping) are due to be held at Greenwich Park which will also host two disciplines of the Modern Pentathlon competition (running and riding) and the Paralympics equestrian event.
None of the alternatives identified by LOCOG and considered by KPMG are in a location which is close enough to accommodate the Modern Pentathlon show jumping event which needs to be located close to the Olympic Park to allow the completion of all five events within one day.
Any move away from Greenwich would therefore result in a doubling up of facilities with the need to build a separate Modern Pentathlon show-jumping facility close to the Olympic Park.
In addition, all of the alternative venues would also require the funding of additional accommodation as they are not within IOC guidelines for travel time from the Olympic Village.
Given these considerations, an alternative location for equestrian and modern pentathlon would not result in lower costs than Greenwich Park.’
The findings of the KPMG Report can be viewed on the London 2012 website at www.london2012.com/news/archive/2008-11/olympic-board-statement.php.
January 2009The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) started a series of Borough wide consultations on the Greenwich involvement in the 2012 Olympics in November. Drop in sessions have already taken place in Greenwich, Plumstead, Eltham and Woolwich.
on Thursday 4 December from 7pm to 9pm where chairman of LOCOG, Lord Sebastian Coe, Leader of Greenwich Council, Cllr Chris Roberts, and a panel of experts will answer questions. Tickets are free but must be obtained in advance from clare.chapman@greenwich.gov.uk or Tel: 020 8921 6191.
The start of public consultations is a welcome move, as is providing the Friends with an outline timetable for the run up to the events in Greenwich Park, should they still take place there. But the use of the Park for the Olympic equestrian events continues to dominate Park issues.
The Friends committee has continued to make clear to LOCOG and the media that a large number of the Friends want the equestrian cross country event moved from Greenwich Park. Opportunities to put this point of view have included interviews on BBC Radio 5, Sky Sports News and BBC London TV.
The committee is also liaising with local pressure group NOGOE (No to Greenwich Olympic Equestrian Events) over common concerns. The Friends do not function as a single issue pressure group so campaigning to move the cross country event has to be a NOGOE activity.
In the event that, despite the weight of local opinion, the authorities do not move the cross country equestrian event from the Park, the Friends committee is continuing to work with the other local amenity societies to press for information, assurances and, if necessary, changes from the organisers. Concerns are still that there should be no long-term damage to the Park, that disruption will be kept to a minimum and that the Park will be fully and rapidly restored after the Games. This means meeting the organisers, questioning and persuading them, and making sure the Friends’ views are heard and understood.
The Friends committee can report progress. LOCOG community relations officer Neil Walker gave a presentation at the end of October, as he had done earlier in the month to the Greenwich Society. He is reporting back to LOCOG on the continuing need for more information on key points such as the route for the cross country course, how the expected 23,000 spectators for the arena events will be moved from their public transport arrival points to their seats, and the location of the stabling.
The Friends committee was shown ‘before and after’ photographs from the cross country event for the Beijing Olympics. Neil Walker said that the 2008 event was set up on a golf course in Hong Kong and four weeks later, despite previous heavy rain storms, there were no traces of damage from the horses. He added that golfers had been let back onto the course within five days and that it was closed for putting up demountable jumps only three weeks beforehand.
He again assured the Friends that plans do not include the removal of any trees for the cross country event and that no lasting damage will be done. He also reported plans to extend soil aeration and other conditioning work beyond the course which will help the grass in the longer term and which pleases Park management.
‘We are listening to local concerns’, Neil Walker told the committee. He cited the moving of the dressage arena to the south of the Queen’s House, rather than the north, to protect the trees on the National Maritime Museum’s Romney Road boundary and to avoid having to close the road to accommodate the stadium. He added that moving the location means some of the area on the south side of the Queen’s House will need levelling but this will be done with temporary engineering solutions, not earthmoving.
Neil Walker gave the Friends committee an outline timetable for the run up to the 2012 equestrian events in the Park.
Read the latest brochure London 2012 Greenwich Park Venue update October 2008. It includes a provisional plan of the cross country course. Go to www.london2012.com/documents/locog-publications/Greenwich-park.pdf. Copies should also be available from local public libraries.
Keep a watch on the London 2012 web site www.london2012.com and on the Friends web site for further developments.
November 2008The four year Cultural Olympiad, launched nationally in early September, had its local spin off at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich at the end of the month. The Friends shared display space with the Royal Parks and had a busy day handing out information and answering questions on events and activities in the Park.
Other organisations ran workshops, performances, demonstrations and a mini-Olympics for under sevens. The idea is to build up the links between sport and creativity over the next four years with a grand finale celebrating British creativity in the summer of 2012.
November 2008Opposition to the use of Greenwich Park for the cross country equestrian event for the 2012 Olympics has been growing, culminating in the Special General Meeting (SGM) held at the University of Greenwich on 15 July. Resolution 1, the motion urging the Friends to oppose the building of a cross country course in the Park, put forward by Friends Alasdair Neil and Michael Goldman, was carried by a large majority.
It was also agreed that Friends could vote for Resolution 2. This urged the committee to continue to liaise with the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) to get at the facts needed to be sure that there would be no long term damage to the Park as a result of the cross country event. Resolution 2 was also carried by a large majority.
Feelings ran high at the meeting, particularly over the difficulty, as a number of Friends saw it, of fitting an Olympics-size cross country course into a 73ha (183 acre) park with its avenues of trees, ecologically and archaeologically sensitive areas and historic buildings. Supporters of Resolution 1 were not convinced that the official British Equestrian and International Equestrian Federation are right in their belief that it can be done.
In the light of the SGM, the Friends’ committee have now put on record to LOCOG, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and Greenwich Council the demands voiced by members that the decision to hold the event in the Park should be reviewed and reversed and that other locations should be considered urgently. But it will also continue to press the authorities for more detailed information about the course and its impact on the Park. Delay simply fuels scepticism and rumour.
Of the other amenity groups, The Westcombe Society voted against Resolution 1 at its SGM on 19 July. The Blackheath Society meeting on 23 July resulted in a poll being called which requires the whole membership to be consulted, not just those who attended the SGM. The Greenwich Society has not as yet called a special meeting.
After many months of work LOCOG is now taking seriously the concerns set out by the Friends committee and the committees of the Greenwich Society, the Blackheath Society and the Westcombe Society.
Friends committee member Richard Jones, who with chairman Liz Coyle, is responsible for Olympics affairs, could report at the 15 July Special General Meeting facts presented by LOCOG in a discussion the day before. He noted that an Olympics cross country course can be 3.1 to 6.25 miles (five to 10km) long. In the Park it is to be 3.9 miles (6.2km). The British Equestrian Federation and course designer Sue Benson are convinced that this can be fitted into the Park. The cross country event lasts about four hours, takes place on one day and involves a maximum of 75 horses, Richard said.
‘The Friends are not rolling over in front of LOCOG as some opponents of the cross country event have said’, Richard commented. ‘But what we do need is a precise plan and full facts.’ Discussion and consultation with local residents will begin this autumn, with further public consultation prior to the formal planning application next autumn. ‘It may be late, but it is not too late.’
A meeting between LOCOG and representatives of the four local amenity groups took place on 16 July, the day after the SGM. LOCOG has since confirmed in writing that no trees are to be cut down, gradients will not be altered, sensitive features of the Park will be protected, re-instatement of the Park has been guaranteed and there is no intention of closing the park for months or years, as has been rumoured. The test event in 2011 is expected to be small and to last up to three days.
The Friends committee welcomes the appointment of Tim Hadaway as LOCOG’s sport competition manager for equestrian events for the London 2012 Olympic Games announced in a media release on 24 July. He will be responsible for the planning, organisation and management of the Olympic equestrian events - show jumping, dressage and cross country (www.london2012.com).
August 2008
‘We now have our fourth Green Flag, the Civic Trust award that recognises the country’s best parks and green spaces’, reports Greenwich Park manager Derrick Spurr. ‘This year we put in for the prestigious ‘Green Heritage Site Accreditation’. I’m pleased to say we have also won that. The Friends played a role in our success with their efforts to help us highlight the historical importance of the Park through their Walking through History booklet, taking part in the Living History programme for primary schools, organising the update of the signage for the Roman remains and their involvement in opening up ’Queen Caroline’s Bath’ in 2001.’
The Civic Trust says their Green Flag Award has gone to a record number of 743 parks and open spaces this year. Of these 42 received the heritage award sponsored by English Heritage ‘to promote best practice in the understanding, care, upkeep and promotion of green spaces that are of heritage interest in England’.
August 2008Meetings with the different bodies concerned with planning the London Olympics are being held by the Friends, and in conjunction with the Greenwich Society and others, to address local concerns about Greenwich Park as the venue for the cross-country event.
Questions for which Friends’ chairman Liz Coyle is seeking reassurance and clarification on behalf of Park users include: