olympics to cost londoners £1000 extra on council tax

[kea]

I dont want the fucking olympics, never did. Hopefully Ill be out of London before it arrives

that's how i feel too.

 

[marty21]

LDA have issued a CPO for land in Lea Bridge Road in Hackney (near the Princess of Wales and Ship Aground). Intention is to move the travellers from Waterden Road (in the Olympic Games area) to there. Cant wait to see what the reaction of the locals is.

BarryB

that will be interesting

 

[poster342002]

that's how i feel too.

Me too. Who the fucked asked us if we wanted the sodding things? What mandated the politicians to go for it? What manifesto was it in?

 

[BarryB]

that will be interesting

Hopefully next week there will be a local meeting to discuss the Lea Bridge Road CPO. kepp you posted.

BarryB

 

[Dubversion]

"Public spectacles that only succeed in messing up the quality of everyday life by imposing road barriers, razorwire, CCTV and ubiquitous gooseberry-fool security jackets (lapel connected to unseen controllers"

Iain Sinclair, London Orbital

 

[bluestreak]

1k a year or 1k over 6 years i wonder... in addition to or including the general rises anyway?

 

[Thimble Queen]

I'll never be able to afford that! Already struggling to pay the feckin council tax!

 

[pinkmonkey]

1k a year or 1k over 6 years i wonder... in addition to or including the general rises anyway?

I'd imagine over a few years surely - if it was £1k a year each, I'd expect riots!


I'm certain there was a survey done on public approval for the Olympics in each of the cities bidding for the Olympics. I'm also certain that London came bottom in the survey. No one listened to us, did they?

 

[toggle]

1k a year or 1k over 6 years i wonder... in addition to or including the general rises anyway?

even if it is 1k over 6 years, i wonder how much that will rise to by ther end of that 6 years?

 

[pinkmonkey]

Another thing - just came back from a two week stint working in the Far East. The English Language newspapers I read over there are aimed at rich ex-pats and there are always tons and tons of ads in them for Investment Property. You know, buy to let. Most of the ads seem to be for property in Dubai, London and Sydney or Melbourne, mainly 'Luxury Apartments'.

The London property ads recently I've noticed are trumpeting the fact that London is now an 'Olympic City' and cite property prices could rise by a third as allegedly this happened in other recent Olympic cities.

Fistly I thought, how the hell can this happen? It's bollocks, prices can't go higher as no one can afford it, then I thought, if overseas investors who are really loaded go on a buying spree, because of the Olympics, then it could force things higher than they should be. I suppose the only saving grace is that end of the market is saturated already and it is hard to find tenants who can afford to pay stupid money to rent one of those flats.

 

[poster342002]

I'm certain there was a survey done on public approval for the Olympics in each of the cities bidding for the Olympics. I'm also certain that London came bottom in the survey. No one listened to us, did they?

I don't recall being balloted. I just remember endless chances to "Text YES" or somesuch to a number - with no option or number given to vote "no". Christ, it was like a modern-day equivalent of those "referrendums" they used to have in the Soviet Union.

 

[Relahni]

I predict a riot.

 

[marty21]

Hopefully next week there will be a local meeting to discuss the Lea Bridge Road CPO. kepp you posted.

BarryB

i'd be very interested to see how that goes, I live around the corner, and i've worked with tenants on the clapton park estate nearby, there could be fireworks at that meeting..

 

[lighterthief]

I think the Olympics will be great. The area they want to build on is a fucking shithole to be honest (apart from Hackney Marshes - annoyed about that) and it's about time they sorted out the whole Lea Valley and installed proper transport links and so on. £1k (average) per household over 6 years I can live with. I'm not kidding myself that the sporting facilities will remain for long once the Olympics have finished - there just won't be the demand for them - but at least the land has been prepared and decontaminated, ready for future use.

Without the Olympics that area would have been wasteland for years and years to come.

 

[pinkmonkey]

I don't recall being balloted. I just remember endless chances to "Text YES" or somesuch to a number - with no option or number given to vote "no". Christ, it was like a modern-day equivalent of those "referrendums" they used to have in the Soviet Union.

It was a survey , not a ballot, I don't know how many people were surveyed in each city.

 

[Divisive Cotton]

I'm not kidding myself that the sporting facilities will remain for long once the Olympics have finished - there just won't be the demand for them - but at least the land has been prepared and decontaminated, ready for future use.

For future use of who - the only beneficiaries will be the private developers.

 

[Dubversion]

not a survey, though - for it to be a legitimate survey, people need to be contacted using some kind of random sample structure without prior knowledge of the voting intentions of those polled - by phone or in the street etc.

just asking people to send in a vote saying Yes is merely a frippery

 

[poster342002]

I don't know how many people were surveyed in each city.

An overwhelming minority? Which was then used to justify pravda-esque headlines like "Massive Surge Of Support For Olympics"?

 

[poster342002]

I think the Olympics will be great. The area they want to build on is a fucking shithole to be honest (apart from Hackney Marshes - annoyed about that) and it's about time they sorted out the whole Lea Valley and installed proper transport links and so on. £1k (average) per household over 6 years I can live with. I'm not kidding myself that the sporting facilities will remain for long once the Olympics have finished - there just won't be the demand for them - but at least the land has been prepared and decontaminated, ready for future use.

Without the Olympics that area would have been wasteland for years and years to come.

Don't you think people should have been asked, first?

 

[pinkmonkey]

An overwhelming minority? Which was then used to justify pravda-esque headlines like "Massive Surge Of Support For Olympics"?

I found it:

It was an opinion poll - dunno how big the sample was

91% approval in Madrid
85% approval in Paris
77% approval in Moscow
68% approval in London
59% approval in New York

So we did quite badly..........

edited to add it was from the Guardian online...

 

[lighterthief]

Don't you think people should have been asked, first?

It was a committment in Labour's 2005 manifesto, iirc. Whether you, me or anyone else here voted Labour is irrelevant: enough people did elsewhere.

Do you expect a referendum on every piece of public policy or investment?

 

[Harold Hill]

Well, I wonder of all those people who so eagerly wet their knickers with patriotic fervour, did as they were told by all the billboards and politicians and loyally "backed the bid" are happy now?

:

Sp anyone who supported the bid must have been brainwashed into it?

 

[Callie]

It was a committment in Labour's 2005 manifesto, iirc. Whether you, me or anyone else here voted Labour is irrelevant: enough people did elsewhere.

yes and those people elsewhere wont foot the bill or have to suffer while the city gets geared up for a one off event.

will the council tax go back down when the olympics is over? i dont think so! grr if enough people refused to pay an increase in their CT what would happen? what would be the best way to do it?

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

There's already a velodrome in London - Herne Hill - and very few people use it. There's a BMX park in Stockwell and it's very busy.


People (kids) just aren't interested in track cycling. There aren't even a huge number of people that are interested in sport cycling offroad. It's just not worth spending that much public money on - lots of small, cheap, neighbourhood skate parks would be more used by more people and tick more boxes.

Sorry but thats rubbish John.

Firstly, as lovely as Herne Hill is there is no way British Medal hopefuls can train on it - in fact there are only two Velodromes in Britain that are good training / competition facilities and they are Manchester and Newport. British Cycling did their sums and (correctly imho) decided that the SE needed a covered, short track velodrome.

If you think kids don't ride track you are again mistaken - in fact the whole track thang is in boom right now mainly down to Team GB's impressive medal haul from the last two olympics (from memory 4 golds, 7 silvers, 5 Bronzes but I would need to check). Get down to HH on a saturday morning if you don't believe me.

On the road Britains cyclists are nowhere but on the track they've been in the worlds top 3 for the last five years - really only Australia have a squad in all disciplines that matches the British one...and those results have meant generous lottery subsidies and investment which is why the LDA (ie London C Tax subsidised) is only £3M, the rest comes from the lotttery and Sport England.

 

[haggy]

I think the Olympics will be great. The area they want to build on is a fucking shithole to be honest (apart from Hackney Marshes - annoyed about that) and it's about time they sorted out the whole Lea Valley and installed proper transport links and so on. £1k (average) per household over 6 years I can live with. I'm not kidding myself that the sporting facilities will remain for long once the Olympics have finished - there just won't be the demand for them - but at least the land has been prepared and decontaminated, ready for future use.

Without the Olympics that area would have been wasteland for years and years to come.

well whether its a shithole is a matter of opinion. its not necessarily a shithole for the hundreds of residents of the area and the thousands of people employed there, not to mention the wildlife and other forms of (informal and free) recreation that goes on there. most of it is brownfield, and you're right, it could do with some development; but the olympics is gonna be a private sector free-for-all paid for largely by millions of Londoners - many of whom (and i predict numbers will grow as the penny drops) resent coughing up for something that they could very well do w/out and will not leave a lasting legacy for anyone but property developers and rentiers of all persuasions.

£1K of my pitiful income will go towards this debacle over the next six years (in addition to the increases for transport infrastructure improvements, security etc), and meanwhile local sporting facilities in my area have been closed down. It is predicted that the sinkhole of the olympics will suck in all sorts of sports and community facilities funding for the impoverished East End, away from our doorsteps and centralised somewhere where we'll no doubt be asked to pay to use them over again. I ain't happy to accept it. if you are, lighterthief, then you're either a mug or a masochist, or perhaps a shareholder in a construction company

incidentally, after the showing of naomi rodrigues' 'all that glitters' film at the weekend at our film day, someone in a discussion about the olympics posed the theory that the Lea Valley was due for redevelopment anyway under Prescott's plans for the Thames Gateway (& Stratford international rail terminal etc) - but that the olympics guarantees an influx of private money that the govt would otherwise had trouble finding. so your argument that the area would be wasteland years to come may not be the case. the difference now is that the costs involved mean the land is likely to be given to private sector investors after the games to balance the ridiculous budget.
even the limited amount of social housing that we could expect has doubtless now been decimated.

also at the film day an aussie who was a tenant advocate lawyer in sidney during their olympics. had a very interesting chat with him earlier in the day. the level and manner of evictions etc would have done the bejing police proud.

basically the olympics has turned into little more than a privatisation/gentrification roadshow every four years. whole populations of poor & working people round the world will soon be dreading the likelihood that their govts aspire to hold it. its basically a trojan horse for neo-liberalism, as if we really needed more of that...

 

[JWH]

there is no way British Medal hopefuls can train on it

Who cares?

Ensuring that the UK gets medals in cycling competitions is a really low priority for me and not worth spending tax money on.

 

[lighterthief]

£1K of my pitiful income will go towards this debacle over the next six years (in addition to the increases for transport infrastructure improvements, security etc), and meanwhile local sporting facilities in my area have been closed down. It is predicted that the sinkhole of the olympics will suck in all sorts of sports and community facilities funding for the impoverished East End, away from our doorsteps and centralised somewhere where we'll no doubt be asked to pay to use them over again. I ain't happy to accept it. if you are, lighterthief, then you're either a mug or a masochist, or perhaps a shareholder in a construction company

None of the above, haggy and I have no wish to pick a fight The fact remains that the Lea Valley remains a stinking, depopulated, poorly served strip of land next to a metropolis that is bursting at the seams. The land is almost all owned already by the private sector anyway, and sure - we will pay for the decontamination of the land and so on - but one would hope, and I stress hope, that the resale value post-Olympics will reflect these costs. It's easy to be cynical about such a venture, but I do believe the Olympics will be a positive development for east London and will at the very least attract huge investment - public and, yes, private - towards it's infrastructure.

I understand that some businesses will be forced to relocate but, realistically, they are in general the type of dirty industries that could and should be moved outside the area anway. How many residential homes will be relocated, btw?

The east end is changing.

 

[haggy]

good points, and i wasn't picking a fight

in general the businesses are 'dirty' i s'pose, but certainly not all - unless you count smoked salmon packing as a dirty industry...

there is a fair bit of hosuing in the designated area, clays lane hosuing coop for one has hundreds of residents.

the point to make about this and the businesses atm is that 'consultation' - which is generally a load of bollox anyway - has been a disgrace. both residents and businesses are no nearer knowing where they'll be moved to in 2007 despite a lot of empty 'assurances'.

in the case of clays lane - which has been forcibly taken over by peabody trust, and now at the non-democratic whim of the housing corporation - a long-standing community is due to be split up. as one coop worher said in the film, 'are they going to build a new estate for us all to move into?'. of course not; but then again, why not?

compulsory purchase of land in the interests of the wider public good is justifiable in certain circs, of course, but why is it that forced reclamation of priavte property in the interests of the homeless is so rare, while in the interests of big business or govt road-building projects its the norm?

you have repeated your opinion that the olympics will be good for the east end, but i would appreciate a bit more substance than that. all the 'evidence' i have seen from previous olympic cities and what looks to be happening here is that the long-term beneficiaries will not be east-enders at all but the usual suspects. do you at least accept that there are some questions that the olympic planners and the lda have to answer?

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Who cares?

Ensuring that the UK gets medals in cycling competitions is a really low priority for me and not worth spending tax money on.

But it isn't just medal hopefuls - its regular common or garden track riders too...who can't use Herne Hill for half the year because of poor weather.

London needed a covered Velodrome - and it was going to be built regardless of the sucess of failure of the olympic bid.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Something like 170 out of 300 businesses and Hackney Marshes could be saved if 30% of the parking area is ditched. This parking BTW is only for the officials and 'special guests' the rest of us will have to go by tube.

I can't believe they announced it might well go over budget and that London would have to pay, even before they got started.

The GLA also promised to find business a place to go and that they would negotiate a fair price for their property before issuing any compulsory purchase orders, well that went right out the window didn't it!
Now they will all appeal of course and delay the building process which will cost more to get it done on time.

Why didn't we just let the French have it. Boy am I mad about how badly organised this is. Even if they come in on budget it makes a loss that will take ten years to recoup if everything goes perfectly which of course it won't. Even the worst Olympic financial disasters didn't plan anything to just break even!