Lower Lea Valley is the area around the river Lea which has been contaminated by old industry and a landfill site which have polluted the surrounding area and river with arsenic, lead, petrol, oil, tar and litter. The jobs available in this section of London would have been limited to the nearby chemical plant, soap factory; petrol factory, varnish factory and textiles factory. These factories would have been around between the time that Britain was developing from primary sector jobs to tertiary sector jobs and have now been knocked down or are unused but their contamination still remains. Quite a lot of the land in this area is overgrown wasteland because it is unusable due to contamination.
The olympics games are going to cost Britain 5.3 billion pounds by the time everything has been built. It is hoped that with all of the tourism and money that will be brought here by people that we will overcome this cost and make a profit on the Olympic Games and still have the facilities used in the Olympics for public use, this is why the main stadium has 80,000 seats of which 25,000 are permanent and the rest will be taken away after the games so the stadium will be for public use.
The Olympic park will also include the Olympic village which provides over 17,000 beds for the athletes to sleep in. After the Olympics these will be converted into 3,600 new flats for the public.
The Olympics will provide a lot of new jobs which will be taken up by people living in the run-down Lower Lea area. Some of these jobs will include: cleaning the stadium, security guard, media, ticket salesman, reception in each venue, help office, builders, tour guides, bus drivers, gardeners, and groundskeepers. Although these jobs are not very well paid and most of them are temporary they will still improve the standard of living to the people nearby the stadium. The Olympic games will improve the lives of the nearby residents by improving the area, providing new services and jobs.
Before the Olympic Games
These pictures show what the Olympic sites looked like before the cleanup operation started on this area. We can see that there is a lot of illegal dumping on the overgrown unused land. The top left picture shows where the aquatic centre has been built, it would have taken quite a while to clear the area of contamination before work can be started there. Even though the area still looks unattractive now that work has started it is not because the area is run-down but because it is covered with building materials.
During this Olympics the government are going to stop cars from accessing the games, this is not only good for the environment but it will also prevent traffic congestion. This will also encourage people to walk and cycle to the Olympic Games which cause no CO2 emissions. There will also be a lot of public transport available. A new Eurostar train station is being built very near the games, this will encourage Europeans to take the greener and cheaper option of catching the Eurostar from France instead of flying.
Emissions will be cut by 50% by generating energy on the site and renewable energy using solar panels. 90% of demolition materials will be re-used / recycled and 20% of materials used in permanent venues will be recycled, half of these materials will be transported to the Olympic park by boat and trains.
The Olympic advertisements are going to promote public transport as the best way to get to the Olympic Games
- Stop cars from going to the Olympics.
- Methods of travel buses, trains, bikes and walk.
- New euro star station
- The ODA claims it will cut emissions to 50% by generating energy on the site and renewable energy.
- 90% of the demolition materials will be reused or recycled and at least 20% of materials used in permanent venues and residential areas would be recycled.
- And half of the construction materials will be transported to the Olympic Park by rail and water.
- Walking, cycling and public transport will be promoted as the best ways to get to the events.
