Eastway - Olympic Legacy plans under threat from 2011
plurien
Posts: 6
The Olympic Velopark plans were approved in August 2010, but around that time Eastway Users Group learned the plans were already coming under pressure from the site’s new legacy owners, the Olympic Park Legacy Company. There is now a scheme to abandon the carefully consented and agreed Velopark plan in favour of one that makes way for high-value housing on the West side of the River Lea. Eastway Users’ Group (EUG) has been seeking answers following a first meeting with the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) on 2 December, but three weeks' wait has brought no reply. EUG is not able to show plans that are not yet published or agreed, but it holds copies that are ‘for discussion only’
Approved plans for the Velopark
The approved plans took over two years of detailed consultation to produce a scheme which is known to be funded, deliverable and suitable in detail for the Olympic cycle disciplines of road race, time trial and mountainbike cross-country. Cyclocross and a legacy BMX is provided for, along with the possibility of a play area and cycle speedway. This Velopark design would open by May 2013. Users were delighted to have secured a circuit that could be a worthy replacement of the legacy that was Eastway.
Development pressure surrounding the approved plans – especially on the West side
New owners propose a completely different scheme for Velopark
But -Since September the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) has privately circulated information about a scheme which removes the road circuit to make way for a high-value housing development on the West side of the River Lea, where previously the plans showed landscaped open parkland. (Plans not shown here)
Regardless of the scheme’s merit, the plan means doing away with all the approved detailed designs, the timescales and the development’s vital phasing. A second planning application is unlikely to retain the protection for cyclists in public open parkland. Instead of a circuit which fits across existing bridges over the Lea and between link roads, the revision would entail removal of a perimeter road serving residential quarters, the Velodrome(!) and a nearby £1.4bn retail development. This road cannot be removed until mid-2013 for traffic to be routed around a reprovided Waterden Road and widened Temple Mills Lane. The development of the wider area involved in this scheme all takes a lot of time, and it can only begin after the end of 2012.
Cycle sport to the back of the queue
The cycle circuit could go from being first in the queue of legacy projects to open to being the last on a line of wider commercial and residential developments. Eastway Users’ Group has asked for more detail on the project’s funding and phasing, but so far has had no answer. It took from September until early December for the committee to get to see or discuss the OPLC’s preferred plans in any form. The Group was the first to alert British Cycling during late November. BC has only lately been separately invited to give its view on the circuit’s suitability. This alert was made with a view to making common cause on engaging with the OPLC.
EUG intends to stick to its mission of ensuring a return to Eastway with the best possible facility at the earliest possible opportunity.
Any revised plan would have to match the approved scheme in detail, planning and funding before it should be entertained as being of any benefit to the Olympic Park’s sporting legacy for cycling. The revised plans are completely unapproved, uncertain and come with many external unknowns.
The approved plans are funded and deliverable by May 2013.
Wider external factors in the development of a massive legacy build all around the Olympic Park could also go wrong on the revised project. Instead of riding a circuit opened by May 2013, riders could be forced to wait while roads are opened up, planning applications are rejected, infrastructure removed and reprovided at further cost to an ever-tightening public purse. At least we know there are no newts on this site – they all got shipped to Hog Hill, where direct and very recent experience of a two year wait for the relocation shows how even the most rudimentary detail can be overlooked. No revised scheme could be good enough to invoke a repeat of this experience, especially where it only over-writes an agreed and consented scheme.
Beyond the logistical, planning and funding issues for any revision and reapplication it will be difficult for any scheme to match the detail that the consented plan went into. The security of riders and the ability to risk-assess any organised event can make or break the viability of a cycle facility in a public open space. This seems to be a matter of detail, but it’s fundamental for cycle sport;-
The approved Velopark plans effectively fence-off the whole circuit because the interaction between its circuits and any passing pedestrians are very carefully thought through. The S-N axis for pedestrians is made over the underpass (Sustrans N1), or along the riverside under the bridges, or E-side through the service tunnel under the A12. Each of these options takes walkers away from the circuit and largely by-passes the off-road areas which can also be closed-off during race periods. Coming from the E or W a walker can only go round the circuit on the R Lea bridges, which have been specifically separated for that purpose. Riders may not like crossing over the bridges in the circuit, but the carefully planned separation they offer - especially when linked with the fencing around the W and E-end of the circuit where it goes round the BMX - is a great advantage in a development where we are directly advised by the Lee Valley Park that its policy is to keep New Eastway as open accessible public space, so the consented layout and fencing scheme probably is the only and best option for cycle sport to operate and be successfully risk-assessed without a heavy schedule of marshalling and safety.
A very similar layout to the latest revision was considered in 2009 and rejected because a dead turn near the velodrome, with two passages through an underpass and the longer straights would make the circuit less interesting to ride. The circuit’s separation from public thoroughfare was also compromised.
This time the circuit has these same problems plus it has been revised to take it around the other side of a large mound. This is where the circuit passes by the closely-adjacent housing and now very busy main thoroughfares between Stratford, Stratford International, Stratford City, Westfield, Leyton and the new developments in the vicinity. All pedestrians including those going to the legacy Olympic stadium could wander on to part of the circuit that cannot be seen from where it would be sensible to base race control and judging. The supposed benefit of two loops in the revised circuit could not actually operate because part of each lap is made on the same link. The agreed circuit comes completely free of these problems.
- If a revised layout was rejected in 2009, the meagre details made known to the EUG committee and to BC give even less reason for it to be acceptable this time around.
- The OPLC has published a plan (above) which shows its new housing development can be built on a site that was consented as open parkland, with the consented Velopark sitting alongside it. - Why not go with this?
Eastway Users’ Group will not dismiss any redevelopment out-of-hand, and it’s reasonable for users to be asked by the OPLC which has to develop the site in legacy, but the current scheme is agreed, correct in detail, is consented and approved through planning and is funded as a firm item in the legacy transformation phase. The OPLC appears to be working very hard on a current vision of the legacy park and it’s clear their plans may be subject to yet more changes with later repercussions on the provision of a legacy velopark. Any agreement on any such scheme could be subject to later change, whereas the consented scheme is set firm.
If the OPLC chooses only to publish plans that show it can build its housing with the approved Velopark alongside it, there seems to be no need for riders to consider any change. The information provided by the OPLC indicates there will be a long delay in making a new application with the complications of wider developments only prolonging the wait for an inferior Velopark.
Users agreed to step aside for London’s Games and were given Lord Coe’s earnest assurances that the legacy would meet and exceed our expectations. The approved plan does the job of providing London with a lasting legacy for Olympic sports that were on a highly protected site since 1975. Any revision throws the delivery, funding and viability into doubt.
About Eastway Users’ Group
If you’re interested to ensure the continued provision of amenity for cycle sport on this important site you can join Eastway Users’ Group by sending an email to eastway7506@btinternet.com. EUG believes it is important to be in touch with the whole cycle sport community that did Olympic sports on Eastway in order to keep the legacy project properly on track.
Eastway was opened in 1975 and closed in 2006 to make way for the Olympics. In advance of the closure it was only EUG that secured planning conditions to protect a right to any relocation and legacy back on the site. EUG signed on the line for Hog Hill to be built and funded to 2013, when the first plans envisaged only a ‘pre-bid’ low-cost velodrome on Eastway in return for what was called a ‘derelict site’. EUG has held numerous meetings and devoted much time to the project of securing a fitting legacy from the London Games - We’ve come a long way and we will continue to keep the project on track and achieve it with public best value. It’s hard to see how going away from a funded, deliverable and fully consented plan can be too much in the interests of users, especially when the OPLC’s published plans show it can have both the housing it wants and we can have the circuit as agreed and consented.
Approved plans for the Velopark
The approved plans took over two years of detailed consultation to produce a scheme which is known to be funded, deliverable and suitable in detail for the Olympic cycle disciplines of road race, time trial and mountainbike cross-country. Cyclocross and a legacy BMX is provided for, along with the possibility of a play area and cycle speedway. This Velopark design would open by May 2013. Users were delighted to have secured a circuit that could be a worthy replacement of the legacy that was Eastway.
Development pressure surrounding the approved plans – especially on the West side
New owners propose a completely different scheme for Velopark
But -Since September the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) has privately circulated information about a scheme which removes the road circuit to make way for a high-value housing development on the West side of the River Lea, where previously the plans showed landscaped open parkland. (Plans not shown here)
Regardless of the scheme’s merit, the plan means doing away with all the approved detailed designs, the timescales and the development’s vital phasing. A second planning application is unlikely to retain the protection for cyclists in public open parkland. Instead of a circuit which fits across existing bridges over the Lea and between link roads, the revision would entail removal of a perimeter road serving residential quarters, the Velodrome(!) and a nearby £1.4bn retail development. This road cannot be removed until mid-2013 for traffic to be routed around a reprovided Waterden Road and widened Temple Mills Lane. The development of the wider area involved in this scheme all takes a lot of time, and it can only begin after the end of 2012.
Cycle sport to the back of the queue
The cycle circuit could go from being first in the queue of legacy projects to open to being the last on a line of wider commercial and residential developments. Eastway Users’ Group has asked for more detail on the project’s funding and phasing, but so far has had no answer. It took from September until early December for the committee to get to see or discuss the OPLC’s preferred plans in any form. The Group was the first to alert British Cycling during late November. BC has only lately been separately invited to give its view on the circuit’s suitability. This alert was made with a view to making common cause on engaging with the OPLC.
EUG intends to stick to its mission of ensuring a return to Eastway with the best possible facility at the earliest possible opportunity.
Any revised plan would have to match the approved scheme in detail, planning and funding before it should be entertained as being of any benefit to the Olympic Park’s sporting legacy for cycling. The revised plans are completely unapproved, uncertain and come with many external unknowns.
The approved plans are funded and deliverable by May 2013.
Wider external factors in the development of a massive legacy build all around the Olympic Park could also go wrong on the revised project. Instead of riding a circuit opened by May 2013, riders could be forced to wait while roads are opened up, planning applications are rejected, infrastructure removed and reprovided at further cost to an ever-tightening public purse. At least we know there are no newts on this site – they all got shipped to Hog Hill, where direct and very recent experience of a two year wait for the relocation shows how even the most rudimentary detail can be overlooked. No revised scheme could be good enough to invoke a repeat of this experience, especially where it only over-writes an agreed and consented scheme.
Beyond the logistical, planning and funding issues for any revision and reapplication it will be difficult for any scheme to match the detail that the consented plan went into. The security of riders and the ability to risk-assess any organised event can make or break the viability of a cycle facility in a public open space. This seems to be a matter of detail, but it’s fundamental for cycle sport;-
The approved Velopark plans effectively fence-off the whole circuit because the interaction between its circuits and any passing pedestrians are very carefully thought through. The S-N axis for pedestrians is made over the underpass (Sustrans N1), or along the riverside under the bridges, or E-side through the service tunnel under the A12. Each of these options takes walkers away from the circuit and largely by-passes the off-road areas which can also be closed-off during race periods. Coming from the E or W a walker can only go round the circuit on the R Lea bridges, which have been specifically separated for that purpose. Riders may not like crossing over the bridges in the circuit, but the carefully planned separation they offer - especially when linked with the fencing around the W and E-end of the circuit where it goes round the BMX - is a great advantage in a development where we are directly advised by the Lee Valley Park that its policy is to keep New Eastway as open accessible public space, so the consented layout and fencing scheme probably is the only and best option for cycle sport to operate and be successfully risk-assessed without a heavy schedule of marshalling and safety.
A very similar layout to the latest revision was considered in 2009 and rejected because a dead turn near the velodrome, with two passages through an underpass and the longer straights would make the circuit less interesting to ride. The circuit’s separation from public thoroughfare was also compromised.
This time the circuit has these same problems plus it has been revised to take it around the other side of a large mound. This is where the circuit passes by the closely-adjacent housing and now very busy main thoroughfares between Stratford, Stratford International, Stratford City, Westfield, Leyton and the new developments in the vicinity. All pedestrians including those going to the legacy Olympic stadium could wander on to part of the circuit that cannot be seen from where it would be sensible to base race control and judging. The supposed benefit of two loops in the revised circuit could not actually operate because part of each lap is made on the same link. The agreed circuit comes completely free of these problems.
- If a revised layout was rejected in 2009, the meagre details made known to the EUG committee and to BC give even less reason for it to be acceptable this time around.
- The OPLC has published a plan (above) which shows its new housing development can be built on a site that was consented as open parkland, with the consented Velopark sitting alongside it. - Why not go with this?
Eastway Users’ Group will not dismiss any redevelopment out-of-hand, and it’s reasonable for users to be asked by the OPLC which has to develop the site in legacy, but the current scheme is agreed, correct in detail, is consented and approved through planning and is funded as a firm item in the legacy transformation phase. The OPLC appears to be working very hard on a current vision of the legacy park and it’s clear their plans may be subject to yet more changes with later repercussions on the provision of a legacy velopark. Any agreement on any such scheme could be subject to later change, whereas the consented scheme is set firm.
If the OPLC chooses only to publish plans that show it can build its housing with the approved Velopark alongside it, there seems to be no need for riders to consider any change. The information provided by the OPLC indicates there will be a long delay in making a new application with the complications of wider developments only prolonging the wait for an inferior Velopark.
Users agreed to step aside for London’s Games and were given Lord Coe’s earnest assurances that the legacy would meet and exceed our expectations. The approved plan does the job of providing London with a lasting legacy for Olympic sports that were on a highly protected site since 1975. Any revision throws the delivery, funding and viability into doubt.
About Eastway Users’ Group
If you’re interested to ensure the continued provision of amenity for cycle sport on this important site you can join Eastway Users’ Group by sending an email to eastway7506@btinternet.com. EUG believes it is important to be in touch with the whole cycle sport community that did Olympic sports on Eastway in order to keep the legacy project properly on track.
Eastway was opened in 1975 and closed in 2006 to make way for the Olympics. In advance of the closure it was only EUG that secured planning conditions to protect a right to any relocation and legacy back on the site. EUG signed on the line for Hog Hill to be built and funded to 2013, when the first plans envisaged only a ‘pre-bid’ low-cost velodrome on Eastway in return for what was called a ‘derelict site’. EUG has held numerous meetings and devoted much time to the project of securing a fitting legacy from the London Games - We’ve come a long way and we will continue to keep the project on track and achieve it with public best value. It’s hard to see how going away from a funded, deliverable and fully consented plan can be too much in the interests of users, especially when the OPLC’s published plans show it can have both the housing it wants and we can have the circuit as agreed and consented.
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