Olympics news channal

Press Release: Leyton Marsh Campaign to seek Judicial Review

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:02 GMT

As already featured on Games Monitor a newly formed campaign group, The Save Leyton Marshes! Group, has issued a Press Rlease stating its intention to seek a Judicial Review of Waltham Forest's decision to approve construction of a Basketball Training Facility at Leyton Marsh.

The statement, which is attached, made the following declaration:

A unanimous vote decided in favour of taking legal action to seek a Judicial Review of Waltham Forest’s procedures in approving the development, which is on Metropolitan Open Land within the Regional Park and therefore supposedly protected under national and regional legislation - as well as in Waltham Forest’s own Development Plan.

It was also agreed by unanimous vote that a Barrister should be instructed to issue the letter on behalf of the group. A Conference with Counsel is being arranged for Tuesday afternoon, so that the necessary documentation can be issued to Waltham Forest’s Legal Department by close of business

The Legal Case we are bringing:

The first step is to send a letter before action to LBWF, and on 29th February to issue a claim for Leave to pursue Judicial Review at the High Court, including a request for a Holding Order to prevent work starting during the progress of the case, and probably accompanied by an emergency Injunction to prevent the site being fenced off – which has been given permission from the 1st March.

There is also an option of making a formal complaint to the Borough itself, which could ultimately come to referral to the Local Government Ombudsman, and of making a complaint about the conduct of the Lea Valley Regional Park Authority who have not acted in accordance with their own governing Park Act providing for the setting up the country’s first Regional Park in 1967.

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Dogs Against Romney protesting at Westminster - USA TODAY

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:33 GMT

USA TODAY

Dogs Against Romney protesting at Westminster
USA TODAY
An animal advocacy group is using the glitz and glamour of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York to protest Mitt Romney's treatment of animals. In a press release on the Dogs Against Romney web site, the group invited protesters to gather in ...

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10 years later, Olympic champs return to Salt Lake - The Associated Press

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:50 GMT

The Associated Press

10 years later, Olympic champs return to Salt Lake
The Associated Press
The lavender dress Sarah Hughes wore for the long program is in a museum, and her Olympic gold medal is tucked away for safekeeping. Her memories of the Salt Lake City Games, however, are always with her. "When they said 10 years, I was kind of blown ...
10 years later, figure skating still feeling effects of judging scandal at ...Washington Post

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Leyton: Protest group to fight council on Marsh plans - Epping Forest Guardian

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:38 GMT

Leyton: Protest group to fight council on Marsh plans
Epping Forest Guardian
By Sarah May Hayes » A PROTEST group are planning to take the council to court after they gave the go-ahead for a controversial temporary training centre to be built on protected land for the Olympics. The Save Leyton Marshes Group had a meeting last ...

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Managing Dissent in Chicago - In These Times

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:05 GMT

Managing Dissent in Chicago
In These Times
As the G8/NATO summits approach, activists protest restrictive new rules–and prepare for the spotlight. BY Jeremy Gantz The US Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and assembly, but not freedom from the capricious dictates of the Chicago Police ...

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Olympics green plan has “significant gaps” - Marketing Week

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:04 GMT

Marketing Week

Olympics green plan has “significant gaps”
Marketing Week
London 2012 organisers still do not have an energy conservation strategy in place, despite a pledge to make it one of the greenest Olympics, according to the watchdog The Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 (CSL). That is the warning from the ...

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In Greece, tumult in the government and on the streets - Washington Post

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:26 GMT

BBC News

In Greece, tumult in the government and on the streets
Washington Post
Petros Giannakouris / AP Firefighters hold a banner as more than 1000 Greek police, firefighters and coast guards, many in uniform, gather for an anti-austerity protest outside the marble Panathenaean stadium, where the first modern Olympics were held ...
Greece MPs pass austerity plan amid violent protestsBBC News

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Olympic sponsorship row fuelled by Bhopal revelations - The Independent

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:02 GMT

Indian Express

Olympic sponsorship row fuelled by Bhopal revelations
The Independent
Dow, an International Olympic Committee partner, was awarded the stadium wrap contract last August. The controversial deal led to protests from MPs, Olympians and survivor groups who claim Dow is an unsuitable sponsor. Last month ethics tsar Meredith ...
Toxic shadow eclipses supposedly sustainable OlympicsRT

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Vandals at the Gate - Open letter to Greenwich Councillors

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:16 GMT

Following the demolition of the Blackheath Gate Rachel Mawhood decided to send an open letter sent to Greenwich Councillors. It is published below with some minor amendments to the text for clarity and to include links.

She also records: ‘Incidentally, when a member of the Friends of Greenwich Park telephoned the chair of the Friends to complain about the demolition, her de haut en bas response included her opinion that as the Gates were only put up in 1880 they were "not that old" ... With Friends like these in the amenity societies, who needs LOCOG?'

Dear Councillors

Why did councillors not challenge LOCOG's assertion in Paragraph 7.6 on page 58 in the planning board report for the meeting on 26 January 2012, the Blackheath Gate application 11/2396/F and application for Listed Building Consent (Ref: 11/2397/L) that the bricks in the Blackheath Gate stanchions were of ‘poor quality’

‘generally the poor quality of the bricks’

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Cowley protests to Swimming Australia - Adelaide Now

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:11 GMT

Sydney Morning Herald

Cowley protests to Swimming Australia
Adelaide Now
Cowley's letter comes as D'Arcy awaits the green light from Swimming Australia or the Australian Olympic Committee to compete at the London Games. D'Arcy has filed for bankruptcy because of the compensation money he owes Cowley following an assault ...
Simon Cowley questions Australian Swimming and the AOC over the handling of ...The Daily Telegraph

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Olympics Land Wars and Judicial Reviews

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:11 GMT

Following the recent debacle over the Circus Field Nogoe has announced that it is seeking legal advice on and preparing to seek judicial review of Greenwich Council's planning board decision of 26 January 2012.

Circus Field - Cuckoo comes early to Greenwich

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:11 GMT

Unsurprisingly Locog's planning application for its activities in Greenwich Park was passed by Greenwich's Planning Committee. Three of the nine members of the Committee, including the Leader of the Council, failed to turn up. It is questionable whether it and other Olympic Borough Planning Committees still deserve that name so corrupted has the local planning system been by the progress of the juggernaut.

Losing the Marshes.

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:43 GMT

A story of what happens when the Olympics comes to town. The Olympic Games and the attendant juggernaut of its needs will threaten an area rich in history and loved by its community and visitors from the rest of London. Hackney has its own unique qualities, a wealth of community projects and a history of great significance and symmetry with today and the prescience for the behemoth of the Olympics, steadily rolling into view.

Security Conference for London Olympics Plans Massive Police Operation

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:05 GMT

By Paul Stuart - 1 February 2012

The security operation will begin when the Olympic flame arrives in Lands End, Cornwall, and will finish after the closing ceremony of the Para-Olympic games, approximately three months later. For this period, up to 23,700 security guards (including 3,000 unpaid volunteers) will be provided by G4S [private security]. They will join 13,500 military personnel, a larger force than the 10,000 British soldiers deployed in Afghanistan, and almost 12,000 police, as many as were deployed in last August’s rioting.

Indian Paralympians in fresh call for London 2012 boycott over Dow row - The Guardian

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:33 GMT

BBC News

Indian Paralympians in fresh call for London 2012 boycott over Dow row
The Guardian
Protesters against Dow Chemical's sponsorship of the wrap that will surround the Olympic Stadium have opened a new front in their campaign, after Indian Paralympians issued fresh calls for a boycott of the London Games. Girraj Singh, a silver medallist ...
Lloyd-Webber's wrong, Games visitors will flock to LondonEvening Standard
Olympics shoot for green medalBBC News
Taxi Fares To Rise 5% For Olympics - After TfL Refject 22% IncreaseLBC 97.3

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Open Letter to Meredith Alexander former Commissioner on the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:57 GMT

OPEN LETTER TO MEREDITH ALEXANDER ON HER RESIGNATION FROM THE COMMISSION OF A SUSTAINABLE LONDON 2012

30th January 2012

Dear Ms Alexander

I wholeheartedly congratulate you on your decision to resign from the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012. As far as I am aware you are the only person involved with London 2012 who has the integrity, courage and conviction to take such a morally justifiable action.

Olympics ethics watchdog quits in protest over chemical company - Telegraph.co.uk

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 03:24 GMT

London24

Olympics ethics watchdog quits in protest over chemical company
Telegraph.co.uk
Meredith Alexander, an ethics watchdog for the 2012 Games, has quit in protest over the link between the Bhopal disaster and Dow Chemical Company's involvement with London's showpiece Olympic Stadium. Ms Alexander is stepping down as a commissioner on ...
London 2012 Olympics tents ban to stop Occupy protest campsLondon24
Olympics organisers urged to ban tents for fear of Occupy-style protestsThe Guardian
Theresa May vows to crack down on Occupy-style protests at OlympicsMirror.co.uk
Yahoo! Eurosport UK -Reuters UK
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How I was spied on by the RCMP

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:42 GMT

by Jeff Davis, a librarian living in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

In the lead-up to the 2010 Winter Olympics, the RCMP stepped up its surveillance of the radical left in Vancouver. After all, they knew a bunch of activists and anti-capitalists were organizing to oppose the Games, and when you’re throwing a multi-billion-dollar party, it looks bad when people start drawing attention to inconvenient truths like the criminalization of poverty, the erosion of civil liberties, corporate profiteering, and massive public debt.

Circus Field - Bring on the Clowns!

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:18 GMT

The circus goes on! Having elicited the information from Greenwich Council's Senior Planning Solicitor that the ODA had requested that the LDA purchase Blackheath Circus Field on its behalf, NOGOE's Rachel Mawhood was surprised by the response from the ODA to a Freedom of Information request submitted on 20th December 2011 in which she had written:

'I understand, LOCOG intends to use the Olympics Act 2006 somehow to circumvent the 1866 and 1871 legislation to empower themselves to enclose Circus Field in 2012.

Which part of the Olympics Act says that it can be used to over-ride the Metropolitan Commons Act 1866 and Supplemental Act 1871?'

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What a Circus!

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:30 GMT

Following the revelation that the Blackheath Circus Field had been purchased by the ODA NOGOE2012 has pressed on to uncover more details about the transaction. It turns out that the purchase was actually made by the LDA.

Mrs Mawhood of NOGOE pointed out to the Greenwich Senior Planning Solicitor that the Olympics Act required that purchases of land for the purposes of the Olympics have to be made by a Regional Development Agency, which the ODA is not. The Solicitor has responded that the ODA has got around this problem by requesting the LDA buy the land on its behalf, so the LDA has taken out a short lease from the Crown Estate Commissioners and the Queen.

Dear Mrs Mawhood

The London Development Agency (LDA) is a regional development agency for
the purposes of the London 2012 Act. The LDA was designated as a
development agency for the Greater London Area under Schedule 1 of the
Regional Development Agencies Act 1998. The LDA is acting at the request
of the ODA as set out in s.36(1) in acquiring a short lease of Circus
Field from the Crown Estates owner of this part of the registered common.

The lease is made between Her Majesty the Queen, the Crown Estate
Commissioners and the London Development Agency, and an under lease of
the Circus Field has been made between the LDA and LOCOG by licence to
underlet from the Crown Estate Commissioners.

Regards

Suan White
Senior Planning Solicitor
Greenwich Council

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