London 2012 officials have hired the accountancy firm KPMG to carry out a top-level review of three London 2012 Summer Games venues – Greenwich Park, site of the equestrian competition, the proposed shooting venue at the Royal Artillery Barracks and Woolwich, and the basketball venue on the main Olympic site.
Tessa Jowell, Olympics Minister, told the Standard, “we have commissioned KPMG to do a report on the equestrian, shooting and basketball venues, looking at whether the Olympic experience and the legacy they will provide represents value for money. When you take the costs for these venues, it seems like a lot of money to a lot of people. It is a sort of testing-to-destruction to see whether the spending can be justified”.
Jowell said it was “possible but unlikely” that the venues could be discarded as a result.
The Standard reports high-level sources at city hall and the London Development Agency said they saw a “higher chance” than Jowell of some or all of the venues being replaced.
