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• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

OK. If we take the example of the Olympic Boulevard, that is the main Olympic marathon route back into the Olympic Park after they have done their 26 miles. The aspiration would be that that looks good on television, for example. That is not your responsibility?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

OK. There is an interesting challenge here which is that virtually the whole of the rest of the world is very keen to make sure that the Olympics do not go over budget, whereas a lot of my constituents in East London are very anxious to make sure that, in making sure the Olympics do not go over budget, we do not spend too little on the regeneration benefits for the area. The individual borough councils, for example, have aspirations as to how the Olympics will improve their areas. One that pops up is the Olympic Boulevard idea, supported by...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

Can I move on to the question of jobs and employment. There has been a lot of focus on the budgets ensuring that people are adequately trained to build the facilities. Do you have a responsibility for thinking about legacy land uses and the ways in which communities will benefit from those uses of land? The one that is held up very often is the Broadcast Centre which could become a major employment venue in the future. What is your role in that, or are you simply trying to get the cheapest building up quickly, do not care if it...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

I suppose I should declare, for the record, that I am the Deputy Chair of the UDC, although I would not accept that it is the only body responsible for this work.

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

Right, OK. If we want to make sure that the boundaries, although you could physically walk across them after the Games, are softened to a point where a resident of Bow or of Hackney Wick can walk into the Olympic Park after the Games as if it was next door to them, and talk about responsibility for funding that and making sure it happens, is that again not your responsibility?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

I have had some involvement in this issue, and life is never quite as straightforward as it might seem. I think we should note that the cyclists, quite rightly, in a consultation, rejected an option for relocation to Enfield which, although it was very strongly opposed by them for a range of good reasons, did have a fundamentally different configuration from the arrangements we now have in front of us. I think it is also interesting that in a press release that came out today the British Cycling Chief Executive says, `The Olympic Velopark will be a huge boost to...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

Right. Another example would be the white water canoeing facility where, again, to have a national venue which can be used for international competitions every now and again is a very real and obvious aspiration for the national body, but to have a facility that at the same time can train people up to become tomorrow's Olympic athletes is sometimes going to be in conflict with that. I do not want specific answers about specific venues, but how are you going to make sure and be able to demonstrate to us that you have balanced those in a way that...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

So that does mean that from time to time you might say to the national elite body, `We understand what you want, but the best needs of the area are served by doing something different from that'. Can you give an example of that?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

You talk about changing scope as being a risk. I am a representative for the area and my constituents have a whole range of regeneration aspirations from the Games. If we take the example of bridges, which you cited as being quite an expensive part of your work, as I understand it there is some unhappiness at present that some of the bridge proposals are presented as being temporary. I am pretty sure it would be relatively cheaper to build a bridge which had a life of 12 weeks in 2012 as against a bridge which had a life of...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 25 April 2007

On this part of the question then, you say the biggest risk is about the change in peoples' specification for the work. I have been involved in regeneration projects where the biggest risk turned out to be build cost inflation. You are not figuring that as being a big contributor?