Geologists have given warning that developers must take full account of the geology beneath the Olympic park and, more widely, in the Thames Gateway area from Tower Bridge to Thurrock.

The emerging debacle of the escalating costs of the Games are providing the most disingenuous twists of logic and language. Ken Livingstone now states that the rising costs are not associated with the Games but with the ‘Legacy’, as if it were a leech that had insinuated itself into the proceedings. ‘Legacy’, we were told when the bid was successful, was one of the reasons which helped win. ‘Legacy’ was all about regeneration of an area typified as a black hole, despite it housing over 250 businesses, housing low-wage families and individuals and having a significant urban wildlife associated with the waterways and derelict land.

The Thames estuary is one of the UK's most important wildlife habitats, with 200,000 birds visiting every year, four EU-designated special protected areas and 40 sites of special scientific interest.

E-mail from Julie Sumner of Manor Gardens Allotments to Jenny Jones of the GLA Mon, 6 Nov 2006

Jack Lemley, who was chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), claims that in the 15 months since London won the Games, no remediation work has begun on the 757-acre site in east London.

Information in this section is taken from a statement by Katy Andrews, Vice-chair of the New Lammas Lands Defence Committee, made in February 2005, unless stated.

The Hackney, Walthamstow and Leyton Marshes are former Lammas Lands. This means meadows upon which parishioners had the common right to graze cattle from Lammas Day (the Celtic Midsummer Day, August 1) following the hay harvest, until Lady Day (old New Year's Day, March 25). These rights date back to before the Norman Conquest, and possibly pre date the Roman era.

Bleak future prospects at Manor Gardens

Manor Gardens AllotmentsManor Gardens, bequeathed to be allotments 'in perpetuity' by their original owner the 'Right Hon' Major Villiers, sit in the North central section of the Olympic Park. The LDA plan to remove them to make a footpath to the stadia, destroying in the process a century of devoted cultivation and a close-knit community rooted in this irreplaceable site.

Allotments near Bully Point Nature Reserve Information in this section is sourced from a report by environmental consultant Annie Chipchase, and a statement by Anne Woollett, Chair of the Hackney Marsh User Group, made in Febrary 2005, unless stated.

One of the most galling aspects of the London bid campaign was the rush of support from establishment environmentalists and political ecologists, predicated on a statement underpinning Olympic development proposals of a low and renewable energy principle, intensive recycling of waste, low emissions, and 'sustainable' procurement. Jonathan Porritt, the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV), Groundwork, the London Wildlife Trust, and the BioRegional Development Group have all pinned their colours to the Olympic mast in the hope of grabbing chunks of Olympic funding.