Remember that slogan ‘Improving the Image of Construction’ which gets plastered over every new building site in the country? Back in September 2009 103 construction companies were fined £129.5m by the Office of Fair Trading following an investigation into collusion by companies on contract bidding, or price fixing, between 2000 and 2006. One of the offending companies was Olympics contractor John Sisk and Co, which is working on the Athletes’ Village and the Woolwich shooting range. In keeping with British soft touch regulation the fines for this offence were then dramatically reduced in March 2011 by the Competition Appeal Tribunal on the extraordinary grounds that this practice was "long-standing in the industry and widely regarded as legitimate"!

This article is reproduced with permission from UK Tar Sands Network.

BP’s brand is all over the Olympics. It is ‘Sustainability Partner’. It is bankrolling educational and cultural initiatives. It is providing fuel for the Games, and sponsoring many athletes – including some in Team GB and Team USA.

But BP is one of the most unsustainable companies on the planet. Its true values – putting profit before people’s lives and a stable climate – are in direct contradiction with those espoused by the Olympics. That’s why it is spending so much money on sponsorship this year: the Olympics are the perfect vehicle for BP to rebuild its shattered reputation and try to convince the public that it is a good corporate citizen, playing an important social and environmental role.

Of course, it isn’t. It is entirely focused on extracting every last fossil fuel it can get its hands on – including tar sands, fracking, deepwater drilling and the Arctic. Oh, and it recently closed down its solar division, giving up on this essential renewable technology, because it just wasn’t profitable enough.

By allowing BP to associate itself so closely with such a potent feelgood factor, the Olympics are encouraging some of the most outrageous greenwash we’ve ever seen. BP should not be allowed to sponsor the Olympics, nor the cultural events that surround it.

For more details, read on.

If you want to stay informed, join our tongue-in-cheek https://www.facebook.com/BPLondon2012Greenwash.

BP as Sustainability Partner

By Mike Wells, posted 16th February 2012, edited 17th Feb 2012

For security reasons there will be no commercial flights within 18 miles of the Olympic stadium for the duration of the Games. This will mean that VIPs and heads of state will not be able to use their preferred mode of transport - the helicopter - they will have to slum it with the rest of us on the roads.

Richard Relton representing Sead Dizdarevic's Jet Set Sports, and Peter Moore, head of Olympic packages at Thomas Cook's agency Iluka, both appear - courtesy of secret filming - in Channel 4's Olympic Tickets for Sale, each claiming ability to sell access to the London 2012 ORN Zil Lanes.

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.

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.

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 only the second person involved with London 2012 who has had the integrity, courage and conviction to take such a morally justifiable action.

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?'