Reproduced here is the letter sent to the Hackney Gazette from Hackney Marshes User Group. Please note that the final sentence was edited by the Gazette such that it's meaning was lost when published in the print edition of Thursday 5th November 2009.

2010 Olympic Torch Relay Starts Off Disgraced, Delayed, and Disrupted

This paper attempts to identify and clarify two important issues: how should we estimate the costs and benefits of major events; and the relevance of the experience of other cities’ Commonwealth and Olympic games experiences.

Pan American Games. Rio 2007.

'Game Plan' a joint Department of Culture, Media and Sport and Strategy Unit Report published in December 2002 which examined policy on Sport while the government was thinking about bidding for the Olympics in 2012. It was signed off by Tony Blair who wrote the foreword.

Tom Tresser - (Tom is an educator, organizer and consultant in Chicago's creative community.)

[ Note -- I was one of the three No Games Chicago delegates who travelled to Copenhagen last week to deliver materials and messages to the members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)]

Two presidents, two prime ministers and a monarch cavorted in front of the unelected, unaccountable members of the IOC begging to be allowed to spend billions on their three week circus. In the end it was Rio, the poorest of the four cities but the one which had promised to spend the most with a budget of $14.4bn (£9.90bn) for construction and $2.8bn (£1.92bn) for operating costs - all of which will be underwritten by the government, that was rolled over. That may well not be the end of it. In 2007 Brazil’s Pan American Games was four times over budget, just like London’s Olympic budget. Similar concerns exist about a likely overspend on Brazil's hosting of the 2014 World Cup. Even a Brazilian sports paper, Lance, has said the 2014 bid was a confidence trick and the money should have gone on health and education.

During his recent foray into East London with the cabinet Gordon Brown once again played up the job benefits of the Olympics saying "Thanks to the Olympics, thousands of jobs are being created and protected in some of the industries worst hit by the recession - and in some of Britain's most deprived areas." Back in January he claimed the 2012 Olympics would create 50,000 new jobs, a considerable advance on the Compulsory Purchase Inquiry in 2006 when the LDA was saying there would be 6,000 net new jobs arising from the Olympics. With a budget of £9.34billion and rising, along with more spending to come after the Games, there should indeed be some new jobs, but specifically how many, in what employment sectors and how many would have been created if the Olympics hadn’t happened? I decided to ask some Freedom of Information questions to see if the LDA could be more specific.

After more than a year of seriously annoying and disturbing the residents of Leabank Square with dust and noise from its construction project the Olympic Delivery Authority has further turned the screw by insisting that residents should desist from denouncing a member of staff. In comments, although not in articles, posted on the Leabank Square blogspot residents had vigorously condemned the performance of the ODA’s community relations manager, Giorgia Sharpe. The author of the blog was threatened by an ODA lawyer with libel action if he didn’t remove the criticisms.

Dee Doocey, London-wide Lib-Dem London Assembly member, is chair of the Economic Development, Culture, Sport & Tourism Committee - the "lead committee scrutinising the Olympic Games".