Olympics
London 2012 gives south London a unique and incomparable opportunity. The Games will provide the chance to celebrate all the sub-region has to offer, and improve prospects for residents and businesses. While the main focus of the Games will be the Olympic Park in Stratford, only through sharing the responsibility of hosting the Games in London can all of London benefit from its success.
A south London campaign from July 2004 to July 2005 produced benefits well in excess of what individual partners would have been able to realise if acting alone. A South London Olympic and Paralympic Working Group has been established with strong support for ongoing collaboration. The Working Group comprises elected Members, council officers and representatives from health and business organisations.
The scale of investment in the Olympic Games and Paralympics Games will provide an opportunity to use the impetus, spend and profile that will be generated to help deliver specific actions in south London to support the Games, contribute to other actions set out in this Implementation Plan and support the goals of Local Community Plans.
The Olympic Games and Paralympics Games will provide business opportunities before, during and after the Games. The Sydney Olympics are believed to have generated £1.2 billion in economic benefits, for example, creating new convention business of £500 million in the 15 years either side of the Games.
Businesses from across nearly all sectors have the potential to benefit either directly or indirectly from the Games. The Sydney Games benefited businesses both large and small, from flag makers to food manufacturers. Those sectors best placed to reap rewards from the London 2012 Games have already been identified as being key to the longer-term regeneration and economic growth of London. As well as construction, this includes cultural and creative industries, business services, tourism, sport and leisure; public administration and health.
Businesses in south London need an environment to enable them to respond to the opportunities to be created, through for example, supply chain development, raising awareness of contract opportunities and developing overseas trade opportunities linked to the Olympics and Cultural Olympiad. Sub-regional action can support local businesses to participate in the supply chain opportunities during the long run up to the Games – possibly direct opportunities but likely to be mainly from second and third tier supply opportunities.
South London has a wealth of attractions, history, heritage and entertainment to welcome visitors to London and the Games are an opportunity to increase tourism in the sub-region. It is expected that there will be an estimated half-a-million extra visitors to London during the Games. South London’s town centres, hotels, parks, open spaces and attractions can benefit from this, providing an alternative base to central London.
South London’s diverse communities and experience of delivering festivals of food, carnivals and celebrations can help deliver a comprehensive programme of events in the four year Cultural Olympiad. The proposed collaboration to host holding camps provides an appropriate mechanism to maximise the benefits to south London and this approach could also be used for cultural festival activities.
Organisers of major sporting events pay tribute to the invaluable contribution of volunteers to a successful event. South London has a strong tradition of volunteering, drawing from all groups of society and all ages, that can contribute to the estimated 70,000 volunteers needed in 2012.
There will also be considerable new job opportunities and skills required for the Games. South London residents will need to be able to access training to meet those needs and benefit from the business and job opportunities. It is estimated that the games will demand an equivalent of 7,000 full-time construction jobs during the Olympic and Legacy phases (2005-2020). There will also be job opportunities in the creative and cultural industries, health, hospitality and tourism, business services and the sport sectors.
The All England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon will be hosting the tennis competitions but all sporting venues in south London have the potential to benefit from the increased awareness and motivation for taking part in sports that the Olympic and Paralympic profile will bring. This will be of particular benefit to the hundreds of clubs in south London that rely on volunteer support to operate.
There is also potential to develop the sporting facilities for elite athletes in south London through collaboration to host holding and preparation camps. South London has produced a Pre-Games Training Camp prospectus to attract potential visitors.
South London Partnership will provide a flow of information to all partner organisations and will act as a cascading point for the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG), the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and the LDA. The South London Olympics Working Group - Go South Go - will continue to steer the campaign of actions needed to meet south London’s objectives. All partners will be involved in taking forward actions.