Coe delighted with Olympic endorsement
Lord Sebastian Coe admitted he was delighted with the ringing endorsement from the IOC's Co-ordination Commission after their visit to check London's preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Lord Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee (Locog), spoke to The Wharf about the visit and the increased importance the Games have for London's economy.
The Commission, led by Denis Oswald, spent three days last week examining all aspects of London's preparations for 2012 and announced they were "right on track".
For Coe it is vindication of the work being put into the £9.3billion project.
He said: "I'm pleased for all our teams and for our stakeholders and partners that are helping us to deliver this because as a group they work extraordinarily hard and they have a passion that really leaves a memorable impression on everybody.
"The last year has been a challenge. I don't think any Olympic Games has ever been delivered, certainly not since the mid-1970s, in a more difficult environment.
"But our teams have risen to those challenges and what the International Olympic Committee is telling us is we are doing well but we have to maintain that momentum."
With jobs disappearing everywhere the 2012 Games has become hugely important as an employer, a fact not lost on Lord Coe.
He said: "It certainly has. You're conscious where we're currently standing is a city that's been hit hard through the fragility, particularly in Canary Wharf, in the financial markets.
"But less than two miles away from there are nearly 4,000 people on a building site who probably wouldn't have jobs at the moment had we not got the Olympic project. So I'm very proud that this is a project that's helping in so many ways."
Greenwich Park is still earmarked as the venue for the equestrian events and Lord Coe is confident Locog's planning application will succeed, although he was careful not to count his chickens too soon.
He said: "It's now a matter of putting together all the stuff we need for a planning application. That's the democracy of local government, and that's the way it should be.
"But Greenwich Park will be a spectacular venue."
It must be a very cosy club for the stakeholders and partners who are biting at the £9.2 billion project - At a meeting of East London businesses recently attended by more than 200 businesses not one was able to say that they have benefited with a single supply contract -
One attendee who sells cloakscan cloak room systems was told when approaching the ODA that NONE of the Olympic venues will have a single coat check, pram park, or lost property facility.
The reason ? it will be summer and no one will coats with them – what a beautiful legacy they are building
Others who said that they had seen contracts published on Competefor with final application dates 3 days after publication – nice and cosy !!