Sir Roy McNulty, acting chairman of the London 2012 Olympic Delivery Authority, (ODA) refutes the former head’s claims that the project has been stymied by land contamination problems and political meddling.
Sir Roy McNulty said that ODA board, responsible for delivering Olympic infrastructure and venues, “does not accept the version of events that (former head) Jack Lemley has set out to the media in recent days”.
In a statement McNulty said, referring to Lemley’s claims, “he has, for example, presented the issue of land remediation of the Olympic Park site as though this were a new discovery for the project. It is not. The Stratford site is complex and much of the land will need remediating before construction. This was known from the very start of the bid process. We have had an expert team doing soil investigation work over recent months. It is the same team that successfully worked on the Greenwich Peninsula”.
McNulty added, “as has been widely acknowledged the financing requirement for the overall program will be higher for reasons that have been explained. Mr. Lemley will know that costs have not been rising exponentially. Indeed since May the Olympic Delivery Authority has been working in partnership with the DCMS, the Treasure and LOCOG to bear down on costs through the review instigated by Government post Singapore. Given the sums of public money under discussion this was always going to take time to resolve. We are confident that agreement will be reached shortly and that the ODA will have a robust and realistic budget”.
He said, “the ODA board would also like to make it clear that we have seen no signs of unreasonable pressure from the DCMS and Treasury to cut costs”.
He added, “we are determined to deliver and we are encouraged that the IOC remains pleased with progress as they made very clear in their statement last week”.
