News from Dee Doocey at the London Assembly - March 2008

Published on Thu 13th Mar 2008

News from Dee Doocey at the London Assembly - March 2008

In this edition:

· Size zero models

· New funding for the Cultural Olympiad

· Cats on the Olympic Park

· Olympic training camps in London

· Economic Development, Culture, Sport and Tourism Committee reports

· Get in touch

Size zero models

For over 18 months I have been campaigning to stop the use of unhealthily thin models at London Fashion Week. The debate has been supported by a huge number of people and has attracted a lot of media coverage. Last summer, I gave evidence to the 'Model Health Inquiry', conducted by Baroness Kingsmill, which recommended a number of significant measures to improve the situation for models. These include the introduction of health certificates for everyone by September 2008, and banning the use of models under the age of 16.

I was concerned that this report would just 'sit on a shelf' so I persuaded the Mayor to make funding from the London Development Agency to London Fashion Week conditional upon these recommendations being implemented.

The LDA have now negotiated a new funding package with the British Fashion Council, who run London Fashion Week, worth £4.2 million over three years. The agreement lists a series of milestones which must be reached by agreed dates. If these targets are not met, the British Fashion Council will be in breach of the contract, and the funding will cease.

The vast majority of the recommendations are due to be implemented by the end of the summer. Hopefully this will help to send a message to young teenage girls that it is possible to be beautiful without being stick thin.

New funding for the Cultural Olympiad

At the end of February the Economic Development, Culture, Sport and Tourism Committee, which I chair, looked at how the the diversion of money from the Lottery to pay for the Olympics would impact on London.

One of our recommendations was for the establishment of a single 'London Cultural Olympiad funding pot' to provide funding for small voluntary and community projects to enable them to participate in the Cultural Olympiad.

I am delighted to say that the Mayor has responded by announcing a new fund of £1.4 million and he is hoping that this sum might be doubled. The fund will be delivered by the LDA in partnership with the London branch of Arts Council England and targeted at small community projects across London, those looking for grants in the tens of thousands, and who would not ordinarily qualify for Borough or Arts Council funding.

The Mayor has invited Assembly Members to let him know of any relevant organisations. So if you know of an arts club or group in your area who meet the above criteria and would like to be put forward, do get in touch.

A full copy of the report can be found at:

http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/reports/econsd/lottery-funding.pdf

Cats on the Olympic Park

The saga of the cats on the Olympic Park continues. Celia Hammond (who runs the animal charity that is trying to save the cats from starvation and danger) is nearly at her wit's end.

The problem is not that the folk at the Olympic Delivery Authority are 'anti cat'. They simply do not understand why these cats (most of whom are feral cats) do not 'conform' to a timetable! The ODA agreed to give Celia and her helpers limited access to the site at night, to lay traps and food and to catch the cats. The timetable has now elapsed but there are still some cats on the site (some pregnant), who are seriously traumatised by the armies of heavy duty equipment destroying their shelter and feeding grounds. Despite this, the ODA has said they see no need to extend the timetable.

So far, 181 cats have been rescued and relocated from the Olympic Park site, and several of these have been pregnant. But the greatest concern is that the pregnant cats remaining on site will give birth before being caught, creating a sudden increase in the population of very vulnerable animals.

It's all about money (of course). For health and safety reasons, Celia and her helpers need to be escorted on site by a security guard. This costs the ODA about £20 an hour and it considers this to be too expensive. Meanwhile, thousands of pounds has been spent moving newts, because, unlike the poor cats, newts are a protected species. The total cost of acquiring the land, remediating it, and and relocating businesses, residents and other occupants runs to over £800 million. It doesn't seem too much to ask for them to save these cats - the economic impact is hardly going to break the bank!

I am not giving up on this and will be meeting the Olympic Delivery Authority with Celia on-site next week to review the situation. I am determined to do everything possible to keep the cats safe.

Olympic training camps in London

The Olympic authorities have just announced that over 600 sporting facilities across the country will be included in the Olympics 'Pre-training camp guide'.

This will be published during the Beijing Games this summer and sent to all Olympic and Paralympic teams. The guide is intended to help overseas competitors decide on the location for their teams or individual athletes to train in the run-up to the London Olympics. To qualify for inclusion in the guide, each facility listed has to meet very specific criteria, such as the ability to offer high quality sports training facilities, comfortable but affordable accommodation, and good transport links.

In many cases, sports clubs and training grounds have grouped together so that they could offer a wider range of sporting options. In Richmond and Kingston, for example, seven facilities have formed the 'South West London Cluster', which includes Twickenham Stadium, St Mary's College and Surbiton Hockey Club. This will allow larger foreign teams to take over all the facilities within an area for their training, or a number of smaller teams to use the different facilities.

The decision on which facilities (if any) will be used will be made by the overseas teams. But those sporting facilities that have made it into the guide are off to a good start!

Full details of the approved facilities in London can be found at:

http://www.london2012.com/documents/training-camps/london-selected-facilities.pdf

Economic Development, Culture, Sport and Tourism Committee reports

The London Assembly's Economic Development, Culture, Sport and Tourism committee has recently released the following reports:

1) Markets in London

London enjoys economic, social and cultural benefits from its markets. The history of some of these markets goes back for centuries. They supply the people of London - especially those on low incomes - with affordable high quality food. They attract jobs and income to the local economy and form a hub for local communities. And some of them are important tourist attractions in their own right. But some of London's markets are in decline, whilst at the same time there is a huge rise in specialist and farmers markets. It would be a shame if, in a few years' time, all that were left are a few gourmet markets aimed only at an affluent minority.

The committee investigated the threats facing London's markets, and made a number of recommendations designed to spread best practice, and halt the decline.

A full copy of the report can be found at:

http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/reports/econsd/markets.pdf

2) The London Development Agency's funding of cultural grants

London's cultural and artistic life is vital to the capital. It is important not just in terms of tourism and the economy, but also to Londoners' quality of life. It is one of the main things that makes London a great place to live. The London Development Agency (LDA) is one body that has given grant-funding to cultural projects, but like any publicly funded body, the LDA has a duty to spend public money wisely and Londoners are entitled to know why projects are funded and with what effect.

The committee's original investigation into the funding of six of the largest cultural projects found flaws in the LDA's processes and procedures. The LDA disputed the committee's report, claiming additional evidence would lead to different conclusions. However, a second inquiry by Deloitte confirmed the majority of the original findings and subsequent events appear to reinforce the need for more robust procedures.

A full copy of the report can be found at:

http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/edcst/2008/feb06/item05a.pdf