How the Olympic legacy will meet the needs of east Londoners
Pamela Gardner, East Thames’ director of communities and neighbourhoods, and Daniel Moylan, chairman of the London Legacy Development Corporation, joined Al Jazeera’s Counting the Cost at the weekend, to discuss the Olympic legacy.
The show focuses on the legacy of the Olympic Games and whether local people will benefit from the huge investment coming into the area.
Pamela Gardner explains how mixed communities will be created, how local people will make up the work force post Games, and how the legacy will deliver changes that local people want to see.
“Long before London was awarded the 2012 Games we spent a lot of time working with communities to really understand what it is that they want from this community. What they’ve been telling us is more affordable housing, opportunities for employment and to really feel that they can be engaged in this not just during the Games, but post Games. The legacy that London 2012 will bring is providing the housing, providing an academy for children and health facilities.”
Daniel Moylan describes Newham as a place of enormous social dynamism and explains the positive impact international investment will have, saying: “There are huge opportunities for investment here. We are looking to people all over the world to come and help us build and create the homes and the businesses that will give people in the area places to live and jobs to do. It’s a very skilled population here, very enthusiastic, full of enterprise, there are great opportunities here.”
The programme also discusses affordable housing in the area and the homes at East Village on the Olympic Park, that East Thames will own and manage as one third of Triathlon Homes.
