Member News
ePolitix.com Stakeholders comment on the House of Lords debate on the 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games.
Stakeholder Response: the ASA
The Amateur Swimming Association believes that the London Aquatic Centre will serve as an elite facility for the 2012 Games themselves, and afterwards will become a premier swimming venue for the nation's capital.
The governing body for water sports is impressed with the plans for legacy use of the Aquatic Centre and believes that the venue will play a major role in building a more active and healthier community in the East end of London.
The ASA additionally focuses on the Centre's importance post-2012 as a London Region Centre of Excellence and National Swimming Academy. The ASA emphasises the importance of grass-roots participation, describing the Olympics as a 'once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity to make a huge leap forward in performance, and they hope that the Games can further battle social issues, such as improving health and fighting obesity.
Stakeholder Response: Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
The CIEH states that the mass gathering of visitors will test the UK environmental health and public health infrastructure as it attempts to deal with the main threats to public health including infectious disease, food safety, vector control and terrorism.
The CIEH believes that:
• Public and environmental health is vital to the athlete, public and visitor safety and wellbeing - not just within the venues but across the country.
• Environmental health contributes significantly to reducing adverse visitor experience and the UK reputation as a world class tourist destination such as accommodation pest infestations, food quality, infectious disease and food poisoning.
• There is a need for high level leadership and co-ordination to ensure effective public and environmental health strategies similar to that provided in previous Games.
Stakeholder Response: GoSkills
GoSkills stresses the importance of passenger transport, training and education as its three major areas of Olympic interest.
It believes that passenger transport operations are fundamental to the delivery of the Games and note that operators and staff will need access to training ahead of the Games.
GoSkills emphasise the importance of training for transport operators in relation to routes, schedules and Olympic Values. GoSkills, in its capacity as sector skills council for passenger transport, note that effective public transport in and around the Games venues will enhance the experience of tourists and UK passengers, thus benefiting the Olympics as a whole.
GoSkills further states the need to utilise the Games for academic purposes and provide an opportunity to engage young people in education.
Stakeholder Response: Homeless Link
Homeless Link believes the 2012 Olympic Games have the potential to bring significant benefits to London as the host city but expresses concern that the Olympic legacy has to be truly inclusive.
It places a strong emphasis on legacy plans for the post-2012 era and advocates thorough planning of the post-Games use of Olympic facilities. Homeless Link further focuses on social regeneration in the East London area, urging that the Olympics leave a social legacy that other international sporting events have so often failed to achieve.
Homeless Link focuses on the importance of the homeless community benefiting from post-Games regenerative development. The organisation believes that the unique presence of the Olympics in London should be used as a resource to help rough sleepers and that the Olympic Athlete's Village should be utilised for social housing post-Games. Homeless Link stresses that it is important to ensure that homeless people get a fair share of the accommodation post-2012.
Stakeholder Response: Learning and Skills Council
The Learning and Skills Council stresses the long-term legacy of the Games, an opportunity to raise skills levels and reduce worklessness across the capital.
The LSC's role in contributing to the legacy of the Games is:
• To commission learning and skills provision in those sectors likely to grow as a result of the Games, concentrating on construction, media and retail;
• To use the Games as an incentive to "raise the bar" in the provision of further education and work based learning in London.
• To work with partners to link people, work and training more effectively, providing an integrated 'offer' to employers.
Stakeholder Response: Local Government Association
The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are about more than a summer of elite sport in London in 2012. Local government is working hard to spread the benefits from the Games across the whole country in the run-up to 2012, during the Games and for many years afterwards.
As such, government's arrangements to support delivering a UK-wide legacy must visibly recognise local government's key delivery role.
Local authorities across the country, not just in London, are already using the inspiration of the Games to deliver wider social and economic benefits to their communities.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.