The Mayor of London has been criticised for the amount of money spent keeping details of West Ham United’s move to the Olympic Stadium out of the public domain.
David Edmonds of the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), the organisation responsible for the 2012 Olympic Games regeneration legacy, confirmed that £4k had been spent on legal fees to keep the deal confidential, and added that it expects this to rise to £17k this month.
Stephen Knight, Deputy Chair of the Budget and Performance Committee, said: “In times when public bodies are facing unprecedented budget cuts, it is more important than ever that public money is spent meeting the needs of the public.
“It is therefore astonishing that the Mayor's London Legacy Development Corporation is spending thousands of pounds of public money on lawyers to keep the details of the deal with West Ham secret.
“The Information Commissioner has looked at the arguments and ordered the LLDC to publish the deal in full - and the LLDC should clearly now do so.
“Having funded this stadium, Londoners have a right to know about how their money is being spent through this deal.”
David also confirmed that the final bill for transforming the Olympic Stadium could exceed the £272m previously stated, as the LLDC negotiates the cost of further work.
In response, a spokesperson for the LLDC told Development Finance Today: “We have invested in transforming a temporary athletics venue into a permanent world class multi-use arena that has a secure and sustainable future.
“The contract costs for the transformation of the former Olympic Stadium were confirmed in June 2015 at £272m, but with a significant amount of work still to do before the stadium opens permanently in the summer, we still hold a contingency fund and will confirm the final costs once the project is complete.”
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