OLYMPIC COSTS HAVE RISEN BY £7 MILLION A DAY

2.36.40pm GMT Wed 21st Feb 2007

Speaking at Mayors Question Time today, Dee Doocey Liberal Democrat Olympics spokesperson on the London Assembly, attacked the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone for not fulfilling his role as a member of the Olympic Board.

Dee Doocey said:

"The Mayor clearly has no idea what the actual costs of the Olympics are. Up until November last year he was still insisting the original budget of £2.375billion was correct. Now he has agreed the budget has risen to £5.1 billion excluding contingency, VAT and security costs. And he says this figure hasn't changed in the last six months. He now wants us to believe that nearly £2 billion of this is for non-Olympic regeneration - nearly double what we were originally told. This means the budget plus contingency has risen by £5 million pounds a day and the re-generation costs have risen by a further £2 million a day, a staggering total of £7 million a day since London won the bid."

"This level of financial incompetence is damaging the reputation of the Games and cannot be allowed to continue. The Olympic Board is clearly not doing its job of monitoring the total 2012 Games project. This job must be handed over to an independent body of professional financially competent individuals."