This Note provides background reading for the debate to be held on Thursday 8 November on:

'the long-term legacy for the UK from the Olympic and Paralympic Games'

The London 2012 Olympic Games took place from 27 July to 12 August 2012, and the Paralympic Games took place from 29 August to 9 September 2012.

Preparations for the London 2012 Olympic Games Feb 2012 report

PDF flyer for distribution/display
text reads:

"Save Leyton Marsh

Local residents and Marsh users have come together to campaign against the decision to allow the Olympic Delivery Authority to build on the Marshes. Waltham Forest Council has granted planning consent to the

London 2012: Olympic Risk, Risk Management, and Olymponomics
Will Jennings
Published in August 2008 in the John Liner Review, 22(2): 39-45.

"In this special issue of CLRNews we have tried to document the construction involved for different Olympic Games, the social and employment issues and problems raised and the longer-lasting effects."

Documents relating to the handing over of public parkland at Leyton Marsh by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority for an Olympic Games-time Basketball training venue.

Documents are also being archived at saveleytonmarsh.wordpress.com

The Spectacular Construction of an Olympic Metropolis
Anne-Marie Broudehoux
University of Quebec, Montreal

ABSTRACT: This article presents a critical review of Beijing’s Olympic redevelopment, and of the social, economic, and political impacts of hosting mega events as a means of urban image construction. Through an analysis of Olympic projects, city marketing initiatives, and their impact on the city’s material and cultural landscape, this article postulates that Beijing’s spatial restructuring and image construction program played an important role in exacerbating the profound inequalities that have come to epitomize China’s transition to capitalism within an autocratic political system. Acting as a developmental engine legitimating large-scale urban transformations, the Olympics have helped concentrate economic and political power in the hands of a coalition of government leaders and private investors and allowed their interests to dominate the planning agenda. Beijing’s spectacular Olympic preparations have in many ways acted as a propaganda tool and an instrument of pacification to divert popular attention from the shortcomings of China’s rapid economic transformation, accompanied by rampant land speculation, corruption, and uneven development.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport
London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Impacts and Legacy Evaluation Framework Final Report, 2009