London 2012 Olympic Games & Bexley

On 6th July 2005, London was officially granted the right to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012.

The IOC members were impressed and delighted by the passion of both London and the rest of the country for this bid. We can now all look back with great pride on what we have managed to achieve, and look forward with great optimism to hosting the Games of the 30th Olympiad.

The London 2012 Olympic Games will 'inspire, excite, engage and be owned by the next generation; by the people who will compete in them, who will volunteer for them, who will watch them and whose lives will be transformed by them.'

Bexley Council are committed to making this sentiment a reality for its residents.

Experience from previous Olympics strongly suggests that the benefits of the Games will be felt right across host nation. This is especially the case in terms of raising awareness of sport and physical activity, pride, economic spin offs associated with increased tourism and profile of the host nation across the world, educational benefits, additional sports facilities and equipment and the general feel-good factor.

The Olympic Games and Paralympic Games will enhance sport in London and the UK forever. Everyone could benefit from much needed facilities and our young athletes will be better equipped to develop into future Olympians. All Bexley's athletes will be encouraged and energised, resulting in increasing participation rates. This will, in turn, lead to the borough being healthier and more active, therefore directly benefiting Bexley's residents.

Sport can be a way into learning for children, helping to raise standards and fostering community involvement. Schools packs that take London 2012 into the country's classrooms have already been downloaded in their thousands. With the first borough-wide School Sports Coordinator programme in the country, sport is already high on the agenda and the potential network of distribution and support already exists.

Through close partnership working with the schools across the Borough the athletes of tomorrow are already being identified. These gifted and talented children are from the generation that has the potential to compete at the 2012 Olympics, and we are committed to giving them every opportunity to realise this dream.

The Games will generate unprecedented interest from both businesses and sponsorship, which in turn could open up more funding for sport at all levels.
Thousands of jobs will be created in areas such as construction, tourism and hospitality, and more still as redevelopment creates new businesses and communities. Our successful campaign will also result in massive volunteer recruitment, providing a unique boost to sport and general volunteering. It is conceivable that being so near the Olympic venues, Bexley could provide a sizable number of the volunteers as well as directly benefiting from additional jobs created by the Games.

The Games are a chance for the people of London and its visitors to be enriched through a fusion of culture, art, environment and sport. Sydney 2000 revealed that visitors would travel far outside the host city to make the most of a once-in-a-lifetime trip, boosting tourism spending before, during and after the Games. In addition, many of the 17,000 Olympic athletes and officials, followed by 10,000 Paralympians, would arrive early in the UK to acclimatise and train before the Games began. To accommodate their need, facilities across the country would be use as pre-Games camps. Potential host camps in Bexley include Erith Leisure Centre and the David Ives Stadium as well as Crook Log Leisure Centre. This would not only bring the spirit of the Games to the very heart of the Borough, but could also boost the local economy and generate further interest and participation in sport and physical activity.
The Olympics will provide a backdrop for the UK and participating countries to explore issues such as fairness, tolerance and inclusion, not only through sport, but also through cross-cultural themes such as music, art and cultural expression.

It would not just be in the year 2012 that the Olympic Games would benefit us, but for nearly a decade before and generations after.

Olympism is a source of multiple passions, which unite the worlds of sport, art and culture. A four-year cultural festival is planned to accompany the London Games. This will start at the end of the Beijing Games in summer 2008 and continue up to and over the period of the Games in summer 2012. The festival will take place across the whole of London and will celebrate every element of the vibrant cultural life of the UK and its capital through events, exhibitions and educational activities. It will provide a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for London's creative industries and artists to flourish and to show their work to a global audience, thus affording a much needed boost to the cultural industries. As with the Games acting as a catalyst for sports evelopment, they will also afford the residents of Bexley to become wholly involved in this cultural festival and benefit from the legacy that is left after 2012.

For more information please visit www.london2012.com.