Paul Cowell, Events, Film and 2012 Manager
Minutes:
Paul Cowell, Events, Film and 2012 Manager; Chris Alleyne, Youth Development Co-ordinator; and Jon McGrath, Network Co-ordinator (Mouchel), presented information about the Olympics and Paralympics, how these would affect Southwark, and how the council was going to mark the occasion.
The meeting heard about the council’s vision for the games, the Southwark Olympic Delivery Board and the duties of the operational planning group, which had been set up to ensure Southwark supported inspirational, safe and inclusive Games. The group considered the following impacts on the borough: increased footfall, cleanliness, safety and security, illegal trading and environmental enforcement, health and safety, operational planning and testing, as well as transport and networks.
The Olympic key dates were as follows:
Olympic Torch Relay starts (UK Wide) 18 May 2012
Torch Relay arrives in London 21 Jul 2012
Olympics – Opening Ceremony 27 Jul 2012
Olympics – Closing Ceremony 12 Aug 2012
Paralympics – Opening 29 Aug 2012
Paralympics – Closing 09 Sept 2012
The impact on London would be an expected 4 million extra tourists (12 million in total), 20 million extra trips would be made within London during the 2012 Games. 80% of spectators would be travelling by rail (including the Underground), which meant that the Games were likely to impact on service delivery in four main areas: journeys to and from work, business travel, travel for customers or other visitors, and deliveries/collections. In Southwark, commuters were advised not to use London Bridge and Canada Water stations.
Roads
While Southwark did not have any Olympic Route Network (ORN) roads, there were some Alternative Olympic route network (AORN) roads and Road Event Olympic route network (REORN) roads in the borough. The AORNs included Tooley Street and Jamaica Road in the north and Camberwell New Road, Peckham Road, Peckham High Street and Queens Road in the centre of the borough. The AORN would be implemented in the event that the ORN could not be used and when the marathon road races were on.The marathon route included the A201 New Kent Road & A100 Tower Bridge Road, and would be in operation on Day 9 - Sunday 5th August 2012, and day 16 - Sunday 12th August 2012. On these days there would be traffic signal timing changes and adjusted stopping restrictions. TfL’s embargo preventing all non-emergency street works/road works on the ORN, AORN and REORN, and on all A and B roads was in effect throughout London from 1 March 2012 to 30 September 2012. Southwark would enforce a road works embargo on all roads in the north of the borough from 1 July 2012 – 9 September 2012. During the torch relay there would also be rolling road closures.
Look and feel
The council would also aim to ensure that Southwark looks and feels its best during the Games and to market the borough’s significant cultural offer. There would be over 200 cultural events and activities during the games including: the Rings on the River, Largactyl Shuffle, Spectaculars, The Elephant and the Nun, Globe to Globe, Theatre Peckham, Thames Festival and many others. A summer culture brochure detailing events from June – September would also be available.
Furthermore, there would be the Southwark Experience Zone which included a £320,000 GLA-funded street dressing programme for the north of the borough and a £50,000 GLA-funded street dressing programme that included Camberwell. Other public realm projects included the Riverside accessibility project (£2.6m, GLA-funded) and the Legible London project (£250,000, externally funded) to improve way finding.
Young people
In terms of engaging young people this mainly consisted of liaising and working with schools, with the focus on sports, culture, volunteering and communications.
Legacy fund
The meeting also heard about the capital legacy fund, which had received 40 submissions for stage one (totalling £8.7m). Out of these, 17 projects had been invited back to stage two of the funding process, and 10 projects had been chosen. The implementation stage was now underway. Among the successful projects were:Bethwin Sports, Burgess Park BMX Track, Homestall Road Sports Ground Development, Outdoor disability multi-sports court, Peckham Pulse Pool Hoist, Trinity College Centre Outdoor sports area.
For further information, contact:
Paul Cowell, 020 7525 0857, paul.cowell@southwark.gov.uk or Ben Finden, 020 7525 1289 , benjamin.finden@southwark.gov.uk.