Olympics: Community Engagement

Regeneration in the Lower Lea Valley will only be successful if it reflects the needs, aspirations and the character of the area. The community's involvement and participation in the evaluation of the plans for the Games was an important element of London's bid.

The London Development Agency has always viewed public engagement as a central part of the planning process. It supported an extensive programme of pre-statutory consultation in the Lower Lea Valley area between August and December 2003.

Pre-statutory Planning Consultation

The development of the masterplans involved one of the largest consultation exercises ever undertaken in London. Fluid, working as part of the master planning consortium, was commissioned to carry out a public consultation programme to support this work.

This included:

• around 70 public events and exhibitions with clear presentations of the plans
• the distribution of around 400,000 public information leaflets
• a dedicated website

In all, around 5,000 people were directly engaged in the process.

In addition, a number of one-to-one meetings with 'special interest' groups have taken place with Fluid, the London Development Agency, and other representatives from the EDAW consortium.

A huge range of themes and issues emerged from this exercise and are detailed in the Statement of Public Participation.

• Statement of Participation PDF

Background

When the London Development Agency began to look at the feasibility of London staging the Olympic Games it drew on the knowledge of the Lower Lea Matrix group. This group was established and led by the Agency. It brought together business groups, the Boroughs and the local regeneration partnerships to devise a strategy for taking forward regeneration in the Lower Lea Valley.

After the Government gave the green light for the London bid in May 2003 and the London Development Agency subsequently appointed the EDAW master planning team, the first step taken was to engage with the matrix group members, recognising that valuable work had already taken place and could be built on.

Fluid also joined up with the Lower Lea Valley matrix group at a very early stage, to devise a public engagement programme that could effectively support the process in a very tight timescale.

Moving forward

Consultation remains key to the London Development Agency's long-term strategy for regeneration in the area.

We are committed to ensuring that local communities are fully appraised of the Olympic plans as they move forward. The London Development Agency is aware of the need to be joined up in developing engagement plans for the area.

It is also recognised that organisations involved in the Lower Lea Matrix group will be key to informing future engagement plans.

Specific strategies have already been devised to address key issues and concerns raised by groups and individuals which would be affected by relocation and we are in regular direct dialogue with many key groups.

The London Development Agency remains committed to continuing to work effectively with the Boroughs, business partners and skills councils, to ensure local people are in a position to take advantage of the new job opportunities and that local businesses are the prime beneficiaries.

The London Development Agency is also committed to identifying new stakeholders, constituencies of concern and hard to reach groups. The latter will include:

• Faith Groups
• Black and Minority Ethnic Groups
• Young people
• Disabled people
• Isolated or disaffected communities