Celia Hammond on the struggle to save Olympic cats

Celia Hammond, the woman behind the animal trust that has rescued more than 170 cats from the Olympic site, has described the experience of working with the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) as “awful” and “ghastly”.

As part of a video interview with BuildingTV this week, Hammond said she was pleased the ODA had granted her team of seven access to the site to carry out cat rescues, which are now in their final stages. But she said the access had been limited and had come four months too late.

Hammond, founder of the Celia Hammond Animal Trust, said: “I’m grateful for what we’ve got and we have a reasonable relationship [with the ODA] now.”

She said it had taken three to four months to negotiate an agreement to gain proper access to the site in late October. By this time the demolition work had begun and many of the stray cats that had been reported had disappeared.

She said: “It has been the most awful and ghastly six months in the 40 years I have been going on construction sites. I have never ever had such an experience.”

She said: “If we had just been given access while the buildings were still standing for six to eight weeks we could have got every cat out and it would have been done and dusted.”

Bovis Lend Lease and Morrisons, two contractors working on site, were singled out for praise by Hammond.

She said Bovis Lend Lease had been “really super” and in late October helped save 24 cats and kittens on the site of the former Frigoscandia factory, which covers a large part of the Olympic Village site.

She said: “They made our lives much easier by recognising we had CSCS cards and were qualified to go on site. We didn’t get that level of co-operation from other contractors.”