It’s difficult to keep track of the changing size and definition of the much vaunted ‘largest new park, or new urban park, in Europe, or in London, for 200, 150, 100 years'. In fact it can't even claim to be the largest new urban park in London in the last 20 years. First it was 129 hectares, then it was 110, 102 and now perhaps just 100 hectares. And is a car park parkland? At one time, according to the ODA, it wasn’t but now apparently it is when it is in an Olympic legacy park and so is the field of play of the Main Stadium, even though it is in the middle of a large building.

...their conduct in the affair is now set to come under the spotlight.
"West Ham remain in contact with Police with regard to the serious matter of a private investigator acting unlawfully, reportedly under instruction by Tottenham Hotspur," West Ham said in the statement.

Neither Paxo on last night's Newsnight, nor John Humphreys on this morning's Radio 4 Today 'knew' there'd be a Westfield at Stratford. Apparently from within their BBC bubble Westfield is only that thing near to TV Centre at Wood Lane? Or perhaps they're being briefed? Whichever it was, both occasions provided a platform (again) for Tessa Jowell's lies on legacy claiming Stratford Westfield.

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson was surprisingly and admirably honest on Newsnight when she said 'athletes aren't really that bothered about legacy'. The former Olympic swimmer Karen Pickering also put things in perspective when she said that what mattered for sportsmen and women was that nothing, like transport to an event, should 'impact on (them) getting ready to perform at their best'.

An article 'What Olympic Legacy?' published in the July 2011 issue of the Chartist with links added

The Olympics is a sports jamboree lasting a few weeks which requires host cities to create a new Park every two years. To make this extravagance more palatable the host city contract requires a legacy after the Games. So London 2012 is supposed to make Britain fit and healthy and undo decades of neglect in East London. Nevertheless a full legacy plan, promised in 2006, is still awaited.

Two newspapers have recently carried stories linking Stratford City and the Olympics. The Telegraph came up with 'London 2012 Olympics: legacy arrives early with the 2011 opening of Westfield Stratford' claiming the Olympics had resulted in the project being delivered 'seven years earlier than planned'. Dave Hill in the Guardian headlined his blog 'Olympic Park: Boris, shopping and visions of the good society' saying 'The Mayor profits from good news stories about the Olympics'.

Mike Weed is Professor of Sport and Society and Director of the Centre for Sport, Physical Education and Activity Research (SPEAR) at Canterbury Christ Church University. He also engages with #media2012, and was a speaker at the recent annual olympic and paralympic conference of PODIUM, the London 2012 Further and Higher Education Unit. Republished with permission here is a piece calling for a debate around 2012 sporting legacies which he asserts has been largely absent.

The saga of the Stadium's non-legacy rumbles on.

Ken has waded in claiming waste of public money and horrendous environmental consequences should Tottenham succeed with their bid entailing the demolition of the currently under-construction stadium and it's replacement with something more suitable to the needs of Premiership football. So it appears poor old West Ham are still highly likely to be saddled with that "fundamentally flawed" Olympic Stadium according to coverage by Paul Norman and Amanda Baillieu in Building Design.