Olympic Land Debt (Supplementary) [1]

Darren Johnson (Chair): On this one, Mike, it is fine to cover the financing of remediation but we have got a separate themed question on remediation so the detail of that we will cover in the next question.

Mike Tuffrey (AM): I am in your hands, Chair, but it is about the uncertainty of the land and the longer term development which was just raised, as to whether there is scope for that. I do not know whether you want to do that now or later. I understood this question was about uncertainty about the land and so forth. It is entirely down to you, Chair.

Darren Johnson (Chair): We will have an answer to that. Our next themed question is specifically on remediation so we will get on to the details of that but, in terms of the uncertainties around the debt, then it is fine to come in now.

Baroness Ford (Chair, Olympic Park Legacy Company): I have kind of lost the thread of the question; my apologies. Is your question, 'Is the further remediation necessary in the Park going to cost a lot of money'? Is that your question?

Mike Tuffrey (AM): Essentially. You are talking about long term development and I am interested to know what the state of the land is as it is being handed over to the LDA.

Jenny Jones (AM): It is my question. Why do you not come in on my question?

Mike Tuffrey (AM): Your question is about growing vegetables, Jenny. I am interested in debt!

Darren Johnson (Chair): We will have an answer.

Baroness Ford (Chair, Olympic Park Legacy Company): I am sorry; we are answering the next question by doing this but if you want us to handle it that way that is fine.

Mike Tuffrey (AM): I was coming at it from the development of the site, not growing vegetables on it I am afraid.

Baroness Ford (Chair, Olympic Park Legacy Company): It is the same question really in the sense that the land has been remediated to high standards right across the Park; the ODA has absolutely assured us that the remediation has been done to a uniform depth right across the Par,k except where there were hot spots when a lot more work was done. Our assurance from the ODA is that the land is remediated to the highest possible standards for Games time and that anything that might have been any potential risk to human health or whatever has been dealt with in a specialist way and has been removed. There is a uniform level of remediation which has taken place in the Park that we will inherit from the ODA. Now, it and the LDA agreed that specification some years ago now, so the LDA was in absolute agreement about the way in which the remediation was to be done.

I have worked with dozens and dozens and dozens of Brownfield sites across England. The National Coalfields Programme had some of the most polluted sites in England. If you are going to then do residential development you need a different type of remediation. Therefore, one of the things we have been looking at in the Masterplan is where there will be family housing and where there will be allotments, and where there will be development that requires a different level of remediation then we would do that. That is no different from any other Brownfield site in London, or in the rest of England, and housing developers, in particular, are well used to factoring in the cost of that when you go into a negotiation over land values around that.

We are aware of that. It was the first question, interestingly, that I asked the ODA when I came into the job. I wanted the remediation report to understand the soil condition and what that would mean for family housing. There will need to be more remediation done. Either we will do it or the house builders will do it. That will be done on a case by case basis.

Be in no doubt, the Park is well remediated at the moment for the purposes of the Games. It is perfectly well remediated for any commercial use or for any apartment type uses. Certainly I am absolutely assured by the ODA that any, so-called hot spots - and I know this was in one of the Sunday newspapers a few weeks ago - have been dealt with in accordance with the Environment Agency's very strict standards around it. We will do more remediation where that is necessary. That goes without saying.

Darren Johnson (Chair): OK. As we have got into very great detail on the remediation I will bring Jenny [Jones] in and then if Mike [Tuffrey] wants to come in with a supplementary on that I will bring Mike in afterwards, but I think we have gone into the next themed topic here.