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@Peter_Carter
The Pringle is built on the site of the old Eastway Cycle Circuit. This is about the campaign to ensure we got a replacement facility and Velodrome after the games.
Attached is the latest update from Eastway Users' Group.
Your committee had a second meeting with the Olympic Park Legacy Company in January, following on from the first at the start of December.
A velopark with a mile road circuit and offroad circuits is assured by planning conditions we first won in 2004. The latest planning conditions stipulate delivery by the end of 2014.
The consented plans can be delivered by May 2013. The consented scheme is funded and it took us two years to go from the basic idea to the grant of consent last August.
The OPLC says it will be able to fund the revised scheme and deliver it by June 2013 in some form, with other elements coming in later. This of course depends on several things; - grant of planning permission, phasing and success of surrounding works, removal of loop road (in turn contingent on completion of other roads).
If the uncertainties in funding. planning and delivery can be overcome we then have to consider what the plan offers to riders. Our two meetings have been largely directed at establishing the OPLC's ability to fund and deliver, but in the second meeting we also started to consider its plans in more detail.
Moving the circuit east was an option considered over 18 months ago that was rejected because it came with the problem of a tight turn by the underpass next to the velodrome. Removing the loop road and building the circuit into the lands to the E takes it out of sight and into plain view of the A12 around a hill of 'remediated spoil' which has had to be kept on site.
The revised velopark scheme in detail isn't good and your committee wanted to set out the reasons why. - The letter below has gone to Hugh Robertson, Minister for Sport and the Olympics, plus the Parliamentary Select Committee and the London Assembly Committee on Culture Media and Sport, the London Mayor, OPLC chair and selected press outlets.
Really the only improvement in the revised scheme could be in fencing the site off, but it is far from clear that we could get fences in a public open space run by a public body that is charged with managing open spaces for public recreation. We have asked the Lee Valley Park for its view on perimeter fencing, but it prefers to hear the users' and planners' views before declaring whether it would operate a site that is fenced off from public access.
In speaking with others who've been involved on the project, it's clear there is a consensus towards rejecting the revisions on many levels. Our letter sets out some of these and comes from the view of a person for whom the velopark legacy is intended. We're not opposed to a change in principle and would consider any better scheme completely on merit, but having seen what the OPLC proposes we really can't say it's an improvement and is worse in many ways that we can immediately see. The logistics and funding are also a lot more uncertain.
Please read the letter and take a look at the outline plans which show the circuit layouts.
We hope to convene an open meeting shortly, at which we expect the OPLC to present its revisions for widest possible discussion among members of EUG. If you have any comments please reply and these will be shared among the committee.
Please pass this email on. Anyone interested in securing the legacy fit to meet the needs of riders can join Eastway Users' Group by emailing the address below.
Yous in our sport.,
Michael Humphreys
chair Eastway Users' Group
eastway7506@btinternet.com