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Olympic body gets OK to acquire land for 2012 games(AP)Updated: 2006-12-20 08:47
London Olympic officials received the go-ahead Tuesday to acquire the remaining land needed for the 2012 Games. The Olympic Development Authority now has the power to evict the remaining homeowners and businesses that have failed to agree to a relocation deal. Ninety-three percent of the land in Stratford, east London, is already under public control. ODA chairman Roy McNulty said the compulsory purchase order marks "another key milestone" in planning for the games. "In the long term, the regeneration of the area will make it possible for thousands of residents, old and new, to live and work in this area which will have been revitalized by the games," he said. The London Development Agency is spending 620 million pounds (US$1.216 billion) of its planned 1.4 billion-pound (US$2.75 billion) budget to acquire the land. It has relocated 250 of the 450 residents and 131 of 211 businesses from the 838-acre site so far. "We are optimistic that we will not have to evict anybody," said Gareth Blacker, the LDA official in charge of land acquisition. "In terms of guaranteeing the Olympics, we will have these powers but we expect to move people by agreement. Some of these are going to be difficult to relocate. ... Some are not necessarily attractive to land owners." Residents,including 35 Gypsy families, and businesses will have six weeks to challenge the order. "This is no great surprise, since for the political will of the games to go ahead it means nothing can stand in its way, so there was no doubt that among the businesses that the public inquiry would go this way," said Lance Forman, proprietor of H. Forman & Sons, which has been supplying London hotels and restaurants with smoked salmon and caviar since 1905. The Marshgate Lane Business Group, which represents more than 100 local businesses _ including H. Forman & Sons _ withdrew its support for London's 2012 bid in May 2005, contending relocation plans would result in thousands of employees put out of work if the British capital won the games. The Institute of Public Policy Research, in a study released Tuesday, said the Olympics would create about 54,000 jobs in and around London. The LDA originally claimed 96,000 jobs would be created as a result of the games. Demolition work in the north section of the 500-acre Olympic Park began last week. An unused sports hall was knocked down to make way for a new sports center which will include four swimming pools, tennis courts and a gymnastics training venue. "You have to have a public inquiry but we all knew that the steamroll of the Olympics would go ahead regardless," Forman said. |
