On the day three more Games venues had their future
ownership announced, Prime Minister David Cameron held his first cabinet
meeting of the New Year at the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, instead
of at Downing Street.
"Today, as we mark 200 days to go, and six out of the
eight Olympic venues having already secured their future, we are well on track
to delivering a lasting legacy for the whole of Britain," Cameron said.
The government will hold a series of business summits during
the Games, which it hopes will generate an additional 1 billion pounds ($1.54
billion) of revenue for British companies.
"We are working hard to make sure the whole country can
seize this once in a generation opportunity ," Cameron said.
Sporting legacy and the economic regeneration of a run-down
area of east London, without the facilities becoming a drain on public finances
after the Games, were central to London's successful bid in 2005 but critics
have questioned how much money the government can recoup.
Construction giant Balfour Beatty PLC will take over the
running of the Olympic Park, which includes the 115 meter high Accelor Mittal
Orbit feature, in a 10-year 50 million pound deal.
The wave-shaped Aquatics Center and multi-use Handball
Arena, where the cabinet met, will be operated by locally based Greenwich
Leisure Limited.
The new contracts will create at least 254 jobs on the Park,
which will host many of the showcase events including athletics, track cycling
and swimming when the games open on July 27.
The government expects the Orbit, a landmark helter-skelter
of a structure designed by artist Anish Kapoor and taller than New York's
Statue of Liberty, to attract up to a million visitors a year.
They hope the Aquatics Center could caters for 800,000 users
a year as a local community facility accessible to all as well as remaining a
venue for world class events.
The multi-use Arena will become the capital's third largest,
hosting up to half a million visitors a year to concerts, exhibitions and
sports events.
The remaining two venues yet to have confirmed legacy
operators are the main stadium, which has cost 486 million pounds to build, and
the international broadcast and press center.
"To find operators to take over these world class
facilities so far ahead of the Games and to secure their commitment to spread
jobs and opportunities throughout the local communities is the icing on the
2012 cake," said London mayor Boris Johnson.
"We can now start the run-in to a fantastic year of
celebration with huge pride and optimism that London will stage a great Games,
delivering lasting sustainable benefits long after the athletes have
departed." The Games have a budget of 9.3 billion pounds, with venue
security accounting for some 553 million and a further 475 million allocated to
policing and security measures outside stadiums.
Monday's cabinet meeting followed media reports at the
weekend that police carrying out security tests at the Olympic Park had managed
to smuggle in a fake bomb on at least one occasion.
Sebastian Coe, chairman of organizers LOCOG, said there was
still much to do.
"We are all very excited but I think we all feel a
massive weight of responsibility to get the project across the line and to
deliver something that's not just going to make 60 million people in the UK
proud but really excite the four billion people who are going to be watching us
over the duration of the Games," he told Sky Sports television.
