East End takes Olympic bosses to court over moving marathon

12 April 2012

London Olympic chiefs are facing a High Court challenge over their decision to re-route the 2012 marathon away from the East End.

Tower Hamlets council believes that Lord Coe's 2012 organising committee is guilty of an "abuse of power" in switching the route of the men's and women's races to central London.

It says London 2012 has broken a "clear, unambiguous and unqualified" promise contained within formal documents, from 2005 when the capital won the right to host the Games, to finish both races in the Olympic stadium in Stratford. Today's move follows advice to the council from a QC and re-ignites a bitter row over the 26-mile route.

The council's application for a judicial review — which could see the High Court order London 2012 back to the drawing board — is believed to be unprecedented in terms of one of the host boroughs challenging Games organisers.

According to documents seen by the Standard, the council's top lawyer believes it has grounds to challenge London 2012's decision that it would have been logistically impossible to finish the race in the Olympic stadium.

Organisers state that a central route, starting with a loop of St James's Park followed by three circuits past landmarks such as St Paul's Cathedral and the London Eye, will be better for spectators and alleviate transport issues.

But Tower Hamlets, now the only one of the five host boroughs without a single competition, said London 2012 had breached its own diversity policy by ignoring such a racially-mixed borough. Lutfur Rahman, the executive mayor of Tower Hamlets, said organisers had acted unlawfully and "failed to adhere to the spirit of the original bid which sought to showcase east London, including the East End".

"We're concerned that Tower Hamlets will be little more than a glorified thoroughfare between the City of London and the Olympic Park," he said.

It has also been announced that motorists are to be banned from using the outside lane and turning right on some of London's busiest roads during the Olympics, to ensure athletes and officials can travel between venues without getting stuck in traffic.

A 60-mile Olympic route network will cover 500 roads, with drivers facing £200 fines for entering during the Games.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in