LOCOG events
I've just found out about the 'presence' (their words, not mine) of LoCOG at the Pavillion Tea Rooms tomorrow (Friday 21st November) and Saturday. It's too late to stick it in the Parish News and be sure it's seen in time so it's on the main blog.
To be honest timing seems a bit vague - I think it's from 2pm but can't be sure from what I've been sent.
What IS interesting is this, though:
"Greenwich Council are organising a public meeting to discuss all Olympic and Paralympic activity in the borough between 7pm-9pm on Thursday 4th December at the Indigo at the O2 Centre with Seb Coe, Cllr Chris Roberts, and a panel of experts to answer your queries. It is a ticketed event, but tickets are free, and they are obtainable from clare.chapman@greenwich.gov.uk tel 0208 921 6191."
We need to keep up the pressure, guys. We'll never be able to prove that the Olympic organisers would have been as careful as they could be without concerned groups and individuals forcing their hands but making as much noise as possible will hopefully bring enough attention to the issue that they will be obliged to do the right thing.
From what I heard yesterday on the news, they're still determined to keep the equestrian events in the park. It's our job to make it hard for them to mess up. To keep our eyes so firmly set upon those in charge that they don't do sneaky things like setting up two companies - the first one to 'deliver' the Olympics, the second to 'clear up afterwards' (guess which one goes to the wall when they go over budget...) To make sure that Royal Parks don't lose their nerve and cave in to pressure over heritage, envirnomental and cultural matters when dates get close and tempers get hot. To never let them get away with ANYTHING that will damage our park.
To be honest timing seems a bit vague - I think it's from 2pm but can't be sure from what I've been sent.
What IS interesting is this, though:
"Greenwich Council are organising a public meeting to discuss all Olympic and Paralympic activity in the borough between 7pm-9pm on Thursday 4th December at the Indigo at the O2 Centre with Seb Coe, Cllr Chris Roberts, and a panel of experts to answer your queries. It is a ticketed event, but tickets are free, and they are obtainable from clare.chapman@greenwich.gov.uk tel 0208 921 6191."
We need to keep up the pressure, guys. We'll never be able to prove that the Olympic organisers would have been as careful as they could be without concerned groups and individuals forcing their hands but making as much noise as possible will hopefully bring enough attention to the issue that they will be obliged to do the right thing.
From what I heard yesterday on the news, they're still determined to keep the equestrian events in the park. It's our job to make it hard for them to mess up. To keep our eyes so firmly set upon those in charge that they don't do sneaky things like setting up two companies - the first one to 'deliver' the Olympics, the second to 'clear up afterwards' (guess which one goes to the wall when they go over budget...) To make sure that Royal Parks don't lose their nerve and cave in to pressure over heritage, envirnomental and cultural matters when dates get close and tempers get hot. To never let them get away with ANYTHING that will damage our park.
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
16:01
14 Comments:
Hi Phantom - the LOCOG stuff tomorrow and Saturday is from 10am - 4pm.
Sorry to betray local ignorance, but pubs are more my thing :-}
Where are the Pavilion Tearooms?
The Olympics "horse infrastructure" will not fit in the Park. Story. End of.
Rod - you mean you DON'T hang on my every word? ;-)
I guess I did write about them a long time ago they're right in the middle of the park, up by the Observatory. I daresay LoCOg intends to dig a ditch around them and turn them into the water jump...
Oh, yes - of course! I did say pubs were more my sort of thing.
I should have thought that if you genuinely wanted to get local people involved somewhere in the Town Centre would have been better - how many people are going to trudge up to the top of the park on a cold and rainy day?
I shall make every effort, as, by chance, I'm not working today, and I'll report back.
rod...having a consultation about the park actualy in the park itself seems quite logical? the people likely to trudge up there are the people who actually use the park, and are likely to be the ones who are most affected by closures etc..
Anonymous - I guess that's fair comment,and there were quite a few people there. It didn't rain after all, which probably helped.
It was a re-run of the car free day exercise really - I got to talk to someone from the LOCOG and Nick Raynsford, and made them promise that NO trees would be damaged. I keep making them say this because I think that the more they have to say this in public the better.
It was an opportunity to talk to someone and raise issues - Nick Raynsford said that he was pushing very hard to facilitate as many people as possible coming to the events by river, which is good - but there was no means of recording your opinion. So not really what I understand as a consultation.
Do you know the answer to my problem?
Greenwich Park, is a Royal park. Therefore, how can Greenwich Council give permission for the Olympics to be held there? Surely it is nothing to do with them!
The park is run, as far as I know by 'The Royal Parks' http://www.royalparks.org.uk/.
Anything you can find out will be much appreciated.
And if it will help keep Greenwich Park an Olympic free zone, so much the better.
Well, Rod, I don't know who you talked to but one visitor was told by three different (LOCOG, Royal Parks, etc) representatives this afternoon that the lower branches of ALL THE TREES will have to be cut.
If anyone reading this is going to the second day of the exhibition at the Pavilion Tea Rooms tomorrow, 10.00am to 4.00pm, there are some questions here
Questons for LOCOG
that you might like to ask. Do let us know what kind of answers you get.
To JJ, how can Greenwich Council give permission for the Olympics to be held there? Surely it is nothing to do with them!
I don't know the answer to this but the Parks Manager has gone over to the Dark Side (see today's entry on the Save Greenwich Park blog), and LOCOG sounds pretty desperate. I mean, LOCOG might be able to get the public to agree to what they want by lying to IOC about the real size of the Park, and to the public about the impact on the landscape and their lives, but the risk is that LOCOG will be found out in its duplicity - and that is what is starting to happen. Death throes of "Cool Britannia". And about time, too.
"Well, Rod, I don't know who you talked to but one visitor was told by three different (LOCOG, Royal Parks, etc) representatives this afternoon that the lower branches of ALL THE TREES will have to be cut."
Wow - I'm shocked. This directly contradicts what I was told. The lady from LOCOG showed me photos from Hong Kong where there was a couple of jumps near a large mature tree with low-hanging branches, making the point that jumps can, and, she said, will, be placed so as not to neccessitate heavy pruning.
I think this is really disturbing, as removing lower limbs of old trees can, as I understand it, constitute major surgery and be very damaging. The lower limbs being the largest, oldest, most central.
I can't go up there again today, but please get up there if you can and ask pointed questions. Very pointed questions.
There are lots of reasons why comparisons with the x-country course at Hong Kong are completely spurious: eg different species of grass, different (high) temperatures, different (very high) humidity, private golf course not the finest Baroque landscape in England within a World Heritage Site; trees WERE cut down on the Hong Kong course but they were not, as with Greenwich Park, either very ancient, very large or important (eg the shagbark hickory, the cedars, the tulip trees).
In Hong Kong, the specially dug-out and turfed (with zoysia) "footing" on the x-country course did get churned up but armies of volunteers - or, possibly, the Chinese army - turned out in pouring rain at night to fix the holes.
I absolutely agree that comparisons with HK are at best misleading and I did not intend to give credence to such comparisons.
The point was that the LOCOG rep showed me the photo to make me believe that no pruning should be neccessary.
Obviously minor pruning of "non-heritage" trees isn't neccessarily a problem (I think that already happens) but heavy pruning of ancient or rare trees is very much a matter of concern.
The Greenwich Society, Westcombe Society, Blackheath Society and Friends of the Royal Parks have all been assured that the pruning of trees will be minimal and will be no more than would happen with normal maintenance anyway. The only reason for pruning will be where there might be small branches not clearly visible in the line of the riders heads. Where there are bigger branches in the way the route is being diverted. The two people responsible for designing the cross country course have been round the park with an arboriculturalist who will be on board throughout the set up period. They have also undertaken to ensure that any tree work is carried out at the best time of year for the tree.
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