Comments on: Andrew Gilligan: Park Shenanigans (2)

By: Huge Majority Oppose Greenwich Olympics | Greenwich.co.uk

Huge Majority Oppose Greenwich Olympics | Greenwich.co.uk — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:55:28 +0000

[...] Fahy, Greenwich Council’s cabinet member for culture and the Olympics, said at a public meeting in March: “The Olympics in the Park have universal support.” Lord Coe, the chair of Locog, [...]

By: Paul Booth

Paul Booth — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:45:15 +0000

Is that the same excellent Rachel Mawhood that used to work at the Commonwealth Foundation? I hope so. Great lady.

By: Olympics action replay: Gilligan fluffs it for Great Britain « 853

Olympics action replay: Gilligan fluffs it for Great Britain « 853 — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:32:21 +0000

[...] star reporter Andrew Gilligan was there in a fetching yellow t-shirt. The Evening Standard scribe popped his account of the meeting up on the greenwich.co.uk website, for which he keeps a weekly [...]

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:29:42 +0000

I’m guessing that when they ’suddenly realise’ they can’t fit it in they will have to make the ‘difficult’ and ‘painful’ decision to cut a few of those pesky trees down to make sure London provides a ‘World Class’ Olympics for the nation (or some such jargon)

By: Sophie Henderson

Sophie Henderson — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:21:30 +0000

Please will someone explain to me how Locog are going to fit the course in. Surely this is the basic problem which cannot be resolved. Riders competing on a shortened course, which is the only option they have, will surely mean that any medal winners will not be true Oympians.

By: Rachel Mawhood

Rachel Mawhood — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:40:38 +0000

Cllr Fahy asserts that “The Olympic organisers have addressed the ecology issue, and that’s well documented.”

Greenwich Park as a whole is a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation and supports a large population of stag beetle as well as a diverse range of woodland birds including, among others, nuthatch, tree creeper, goldfinches and greenfinch, tawny owl, green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker and lesser-spotted woodpecker.

The stag beetle and tawny owl are protected species. In all the published LOCOG documentation, there is nothing at all about how they intend to protect the stag beetle and tawny owl. LOCOG has said nothing about preventing the stag beetles’ habitat or the tawny owl roosts from being destroyed.

Thanks to comparatively recently introduced legislation (21 August 2007), it is no longer an adequate defence to say that damage to any European protected species or their habitat was accidental, or due to lack of knowledge of the existence of a species on a specific site.” The penalties range from fines up to £5,000 to six months imprisonment.