Like a newly elected mayor with a point to prove, new London Mayor, Boris Johnson, has continued his pledge to lower the ever spiralling cost of the 2012 Olympics. Earlier this month he raised concerns that organisers of the games were failing to create a legacy master plan regarding facilities.
Now, a review commissioned by the mayor has found that the cost of the Olympic Stadium alone has reached £525m – almost double its original projected price (anyone in favour of a tax increase?).
The report also mentions that the credit crunch, falling house prices, the rising cost of oil and the threat of terrorism are likely to put pressure on the final cost of London 2012 (no doubt global warming and military costs have found their way onto the committee’s chalkboard as well).
Boris’s nominee on the Olympic organising committee board, David Ross, says that the “excessive spending” of the previous administration has been curbed, and due to reductions elsewhere, the final cost has recently seen a “small increase...of only £16m”. There’s nothing like being frugal is there?
Let’s hope that when 2012 comes around, tax-paying spectators can actually afford to turn up and support the spectacle that they paid for.
By Laurence Brown
Latest shot of the Olympic site courtesy of Diamond Geezer's Flickrstream.
