The Evening Standard’s Ross Lydall reports here that Tower Hamlets council has started judicial review proceedings against Lord Coe and his team at LOCOG for their decision to re-route the Olympic marathon away from the borough in 2012.
The council’s “pre-action” letter can be viewed here. Chief executive Kevan Collins and legal head Isabella Freeman claim that the council has already invested “considerable money” into the concept of “High Street 2012”.
High Street 2012 is in fact the filthy main road that runs from Aldgate to Stratford, along Whitechapel Road, Mile End Road and Bow Road. When it was first coined a few years ago, the council announced they were going to rename the roads the Olympic Boulevard, something that not only triggered much mirth but also the ire of Jacques Rogge and his colleagues. The word “Olympic”, you see , is a fiercely protected copyright.
I’m not exactly sure what the council has spent money on, but I’ve not seen any evidence of those roads being spruced up. Did some cash go on consultants, I wonder? I’ll ask.
However, given that the Games organisers had sucked out so much PR value from telling everyone how great they were for staging the marathon through the deprived East End, the council is absolutely right to challenge them.
Seb Coe’s decision, and particularly the reasons for it – that there were logistical problems associated with people running through Tower Hamlets (listen, Seb, that’s what we all do here!) – was a disgrace.
I’ve had some experience of Isabella Freeman: Seb Coe might well lose this one.
Trial by Jeory 
We lost the marathon route under the weak leadership of Cllr Helal Abbas. The question to ask is did he ever have any meetings with LOCOG during his tenure as leader this term or was he too busy opposing the mayoral system and then standing for it himself, taking Labour into Opposition (undoing John Biggs’ work) after 16 years in Power?! Cllr Abbas should be ashamed of himself and resign immediately for losing the marathon route as well as a Labour council…
The fact that most of the East End is a miserable, decaying, dumping ground characterised chiefly by anti social behaviour, religiously motivated thuggery and corruption obviously has no bearing on the athletes reluctance to jog through it. The Olympic runners would probably have to run past the hate filled rantings of Ajem Choudhury’s terrorist sympathisers and other sights best kept of international television screens.
As Ken said the Olympic Games was not about a week of sport. It is about investment in the East End. The polluted River Lee is now cleared up and local communications have been improved. I really couldn’t care where the joggers jogged. I won’t be watching it anyway…
Ted, tried to look at the “pre-action” letter but it didn’t open. It may be that this is covered in the letter but the council are right in pursuing this as they did invest considerable money in ‘HS2012’, on the basis of the future use of the route as the Marathon. Cabinet Report from January (excerpt below) lays out the details of the work that had been done – and not just by TH:
BACKGROUND
3.1 High Street 2012 is a strategic regeneration initiative along the A11 corridor which seeks to maximise investment along this key arterial route using its status as the final stage of the Olympic and Paralympic marathon as a focus for interest and attention from other organisations.
3.2 A number of agencies are working together to promote and advance the
HS2012 initiative. These are:
• London Borough of Tower Hamlets
• London Borough of Newham
• Design for London/London Development Agency
• Transport for London
• English Heritage
• London Thames Gateway Development Corporation
Funding was also lined up to restore the fronts of historic buildings along the route (in partnership with English Heritage) and improve specified public areas on HS2012 with trees, landscaping etc.
Then the Abbas camp took over in May and we lose the Marathon and no doubt the millions for regeneration that we were due to get in match-funding. Have a look at the January Cabinet Report to see just what Abbas and his lot lost us.
@ Resident… you are spot on
I have even met with the assigned Architects who were working with many organisations within the area whose building were regarding as heritage and they were consulting a lot of residents in the area about the proposed work on HS2012..
Now all that work in regenerating the area is cancelled. Real Shame
To all those people who talk about how TH wont look good on TV, actualy, if the proposed plans were as they originally were, the whole HS2012 would of been turned into something brand new.
@HtheW….
“The Olympic runners would probably have to run past the hate filled rantings of Ajem Choudhury’s terrorist sympathisers and other sights best kept of international television screens”
Are you really serious???? What makes u think anyone like that would get near one of the biggest if not biggest sporting event in the world….
Whether its in Buckingham palace area or East End, there will be extra heightened security as its THE Olympics….