"FIRST BLOW TO LOCAL SPORTS CLUB BY OLYMPIC AUTHORITES" - DOOCEY

8.42.23am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 25th Apr 2007

Liberal Democrat Olympic Spokesperson on the London Assembly, Dee Doocey, will be exposing evidence of local sports people being given a raw deal by the Olympic Authorities, at a London Assembly Plenary today.

The Eastway Users Group agreed to vacate their cycle track in Newham (which has produced six under 18 national mountain bike champions) in order to make way for the Olympics. They agreed to move on a temporary basis to a site in Redbridge, on the understanding that after the Olympics they would be relocated to a 34-hectare site near their original track within the Olympic park. However, the planning application submitted by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) for this post-Olympics site measures just around 7 hectares - a mere third of the original size promised .

Dee will be presenting a 1,900 signature petition from cyclists to the Mayor which calls for the ODA to honour the promises made to provide the cyclists with facilities at least as good as those they had vacated.

Dee Doocey said:

"This is the first case of a local sports group being taken for a ride by the Olympic Authorities.

'London won the Olympics largely because of the legacy that was promised for sport and regeneration. These cyclists willingly entered into a deal with the ODA to make way for the Olympics. But the ODA have turned their back on this agreement in the most shameful way. The inescapable conclusion is that they are putting land profits ahead of sporting legacy.

'The cyclists must be given back a site and facilities equal or superior to the site they vacated for the Olympics. Any failure to do so is letting down local people, letting down Londoners and letting down the Olympic movement." ENDS

Notes to the Editors:

1. An international standard cycling facility at the Eastway Cycle Circuit ( and used by the Eastway Users Group) in the north of the Olympic Park has been forced to relocate in order to make way for the Olympics. The relocation was accepted by users of the circuit on the understanding that after the Games facilities equal to or better than the ones they had left would be built in the Olympic Park. Initially the London Development Agency wanted to relocate the circuit to an unsuitable site at Rammey Marsh, but after intervention by Dee Doocey a full consultation took place, and a suitable site was found at Hog Hill in Redbridge.

q In February 2005, a joint press release was issued by the Mayor, London 2012, Sport England, the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, British Cycling and the London Development Agency, promising:

"A 34 hectare site located on the northern end of the proposed Olympic park next to the A12 will include an indoor 1500 seat velodrome (which could be upgraded to seat 6,000 in an Olympic Games scenario), an outdoor cycle speedway circuit, a 1.6km road racing circuit, an international competition BMX course, a BMX freestyle park, a cyclo-cross/cross-country course mountain bike course."

In February 2007 the Olympic Delivery Authority submitted three planning applications for the Olympic site - one of which is entitled the 'Olympic, Paralympic and Legacy Transformation Planning Application'. This contains detailed plans of the area of the velopark, which is between 7 and 10 hectares - far less than the promise of February 2005. In addition the Olympic Delivery Authority are not planning to provide more than a beginners off road cycling track. The facilities before and after are:

Discipline Previously at Eastway Proposed by ODA for legacy

Mountain Bike - Cross Country MTB XC 6kms of trails - capacity 200+ competitors per weekly event (UK's largest mountain bike series) - suitable for competition and beginners - produced six national champions from U14 to U18 950 m of single track, 'aimed towards beginners as an introduction to the sport',Road circuit of1 .6km which allowed a field of 100+ riders to race in safety on bends, climbs and descents, set within Metropolitan Open Land, 1.6km with six bends of 90 degrees or tighter which means you can't have safe fast racing, on both sides of a dual-carriageway

2. The Olympic Delivery Authority will be publishing a 'Legacy Masterplan Framework', which they say they have not started to consult on. However, if the masterplans as already submitted are agreed then the land available for the velopark will be unable to be altered.

3. The proposed legacy road circuit in the Olympic Park runs on both sides of the A12, a busy trunk road into London, with between 87,000 and 95,000 motorised vehicles traveling along it each day (TfL and Department for Transport figures).