East London Life

Not so very long ago, the Olympic planners promised us the “greenest games ever” in 2012. No one seems to believe them however, and with good reason. I have written several times about the proposed destruction of the Manor Garden Allotments, but I have never laid it all out at once, so here is a thumbnail guide to what the Olympic Planners, Lord Coe, Tony Blair and Ken Livingstone mean when they say “greenest games ever”:

1. Steal over 81 100+ year old garden allotments in Hackney.
2. Steal open green space in another borough (Waltham Forest) to put some of the allotments on.
3. Bulldoze everything in sight at the allotments in Hackney to build a footpath that will only be used for two weeks and then become redundant.
4. Steal and concrete over East Marsh, part of the world-famous common land of Hackney Marshes, and historic Lammas grazing common since the times of King Alfred (including 11 football pitches, 3 rugby pitches, 3 cricket pitches with all-weather wickets, an eight lane running track and long and high jump facilities, and lots of nice grass and trees where us mere mortals go and walk, picnic or just sit out in the sun.) to make a drop-off point for park and ride coaches, and parking bays for bus drivers.
5. Steal parts of Hackney main marsh, and in fact just about all the open space and common land south of it, to build a massive car park.
6. Displace many long-standing Gypsy and Traveller home sites in several boroughs and relocate them to stolen green open space on Hackney Marsh.
7. Use electric shocks (presumably they couldn’t find any dynamite) to “rescue” wildlife that they previously denied the existence of in order to relocate it miles away from its natural habitat.

’nuff said