Thank you for your time.  Please forward this to as many friends as you can.  We need all signatures in by Sunday, 4th December so we haven't got much time.

Who do we want to petition?

The Mayor of London Borough Tower Hamlets

What do we want them to do?

To reconsider his Executive Decision in relation to the contract for the Olympic Live Site in Victoria Park. We would ask that a full impact assessment is carried out before a decision is made, including the views of the Police, TFL, Emergency Services, and other local authority services such as Environmental Health and Parks. As well as the views of similar services in the London Borough of Hackney.

In addition, we would ask that:

- The ‘additional’ events planned for June should be suspended this year in view of disruption from the Olympics and the already substantial commercial event programme the fortnight before.

- The Live Nation events leading up to the Olympics should finish at 10pm at the latest and be restricted to the a 30,000 capacity.

- The Olympic events should finish at 10.30pm at the latest. In addition, we would like to see consultation with residents and user groups before any decisions are made.

We are particularly concerned about:

The plans for Victoria Park in 2012 have only just become apparent with the making public of the Mayor’s Executive Decision in relation to the use of Victoria Park as a Live Site. This is the link:

http://moderngov.towerhamlets.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=3673&T=10

The Council have decided to keep the same events as last year (likely to be 9 days of events, with up to 30,00 people, finishing at 11pm), after telling the Friends Group that these would be suspended in view of the Olympics. These will now been squeezed into June.

The site will then be handed over to Live Nation, who will hold 8 more events in the 2 weeks before the Olympics with up to 50,000 people (almost twice the size of Lovebox). These will finish at 11pm.

Live Nation will have the site from July to September. They will run the ‘free access’ events through the Olympic period, which will be ticketed and likely to have a large corporate element. The official estimate is 1.2 million people will visit the park during this time and events will finish after midnight.

The only other Live Site to be used in this way is Hyde Park, which is larger, far better served by transport and is not in a residential area.

Why is this important?

We believe that the totality of the events proposed in his Executive Decision (20 October 2011), both before and during the Olympics, will have a significant impact on both the park itself and the neighbouring residential areas. The number, scale and finishing times of the events before and during the Olympics can only have a detrimental effect on the amenity and use of the park, as well as the community around the park.

Whilst we understand that Victoria Park is a logical choice as a Live Site and we welcome anything that brings the community together and raises the profile of the park, we feel that the nature of the park and the sensitive residential area around the park have not been given due consideration in this Decision. We are also seriously concerned at the complete lack of consultation with residents and users of the park.

Links