One London’s Assembly Members have pledged to challenge the spiraling costs of the 2012 Olympics after recent admissions that the budget for the games will be “significantly higher” than the £2.375bn originally planned owing to increased costs for security, regeneration and VAT.
The party today took the opportunity to remind supporters of its Assembly Members’ predictions over two years ago of a bill of at least £10 billion.
Damian Hockney, the leader of the One London Party, said:
“Two years ago, we predicted that the costs of the Olympics would rise to £10 billion. The way things are going, it looks like our only mistake was to be too cautious in our estimates. They are already up to £8 billion and counting.”
“There was a time not so long ago when the likes of Ken Livingstone and Seb Coe were telling us that the Games would make a profit. Then they said they would break even. Then they stopped mentioning it. The original cost was going to be no more than £2.4 billion; now the predicted costs are increasing every week.”
Hockney promised to challenge the costings in Wednesday’s meeting of the London Assembly Budget Committee and claimed “the other parties in London are hampered by their national leadership, and the Tories in particular by Lord Coe’s involvement.”
“We are the only party in London with the independence to properly scrutinise the statements made by the organising authorities, and the amount of taxpayers’ money they’re prepared to spend.”
