Image: Angryoffinchley
London boroughs with the poorest populations paid more to host Olympic Torch Relay events, while more affluent boroughs spent nothing, according to an investigation by Help Me Investigation users.
Waltham Forest spent over £250,000 whereas Westminster incurred no costs.
Government data shows that Westminster has more than six times the number of active businesses compared with Waltham Forest, despite having a smaller population. Continue reading
One council appeared to save hundreds of thousands of pounds on the Olympic Torch Relay by getting Olympic organisers LOCOG to pay their costs – but for six months they have denied having any records of how that happened. Carol Miers reports on the curious case of Somerset County Council.
The morning after a pro-cycling group were prevented from taking their monthly London route news comes in of clashes with the Police. The London Critical Mass group of approximately one hundred fifty cyclists broke through the police cordons, in place for the Olympic opening ceremony. Reports and images have come in of over one hundred arrests, including claims of a policeman pepper spraying a disabled man on a tricycle. Who was the pepper sprayed man? Follow the unfolding of events today.
[View the story “Critical mass, where are the cyclists this morning?” on Storify]
Binstead and Martin, London Mini Marathon. Jack Binstead (U14) and Collette Martin (U17) in the Wheelchairs Mini Marathon on 17 April 2011. Taken from Birdcage Walk by Snappa.
For the book 8,000 Holes: How the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay Lost its Way Carol interviewed the mother of wheelchair racer Jack Binstead. Here we publish a more in depth interview with Jack and his family.
Wheelchair athlete Jack Binstead is now aiming for the 2016 Paralympics after the disappointment of missing out on being a torch bearer in his home town of Kingston-on-Thames.
Jack got through to the final stage but the story of how the fifteen year old Kingston kid known as Wheelz to his 3,000 Twitter followers, was overlooked by LOCOG, is heartbreaking.
“I have raced the London mini-marathon five or six times and I have won about three times. Obviously I wanted to be selected and I understand, but I was told that the people who are carring it aren’t actually from the Borough and that is one thing that isn’t good,” Jack said. Continue reading