Hackney MP Meg backs West Ham bid for Olympic Stadium
Hackney North and Shoreditch MP adds voice to debate on future of east London venue
Meg Hillier has backed West Ham United Football Club’s bid to take over the Olympic Stadium after 2012.
The MP for Hackney North and Shoreditch announced her allegiance as West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur fight it out for the future of the venue.
The Olympic Park Legacy Company will be making a decision about the legacy of the Olympic Stadium next Friday (January 28).
Both clubs want to create a 60,000 seat stadium on the site after the Games.
West Ham’s proposals, backed by Newham Council, include removing the top tier of the stadium and changing the roof.
Tottenham Hotspur’s bid has sparked protest as the club hopes to remove the Olympic running track and athletics facilities to make way for a new �250m football ground. It wants to instead invest �20m in London’s current athletics stadium in Crystal Palace, south London.
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Meg said: “We won our bid for the Olympics on a very clear commitment to ensuring that the Stadium would be a multi-purpose venue with athletics at its core, as well as a house of sport with training, sports science and sports medicine facilities – all being available to the local community.
“I also believe that being local to the original fan base is vitally important. Of course, we need to ensure that West Ham’s community sports scheme really reaches local kids, properly embedding long-term benefits for the community. But overall I support the West Ham bid.”
