Councils draw up alternative masterplan for Lower Lea Valley for use if London fails to win 2012 games

London’s councils and development agency have drawn up a fallback development plan if the capital fails to win the 2012 games next week.

Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets councils have collaborated with the London Development Agency on an alternative masterplan for the Lower Lea Valley in east London.

Guy Nicholson, a Hackney council regeneration cabinet member, emphasised that although the parties were keen to bring the games to the capital, the authorities had to have a contingency plan for that half of the 1000 ha site that lay within the Olympic precinct.

He said: “Should London not succeed in taking the bid forward, we will be looking over the course of the autumn to be in a position where a non-Olympic masterplan will come forward.”

The number of homes is likely to be lower than the 29,000 outlined in the Olympic masterplan, which has been endorsed by the three councils.

Under the revised plans the homes will be distributed more evenly throughout the valley rather than concentrated at the northern tip around the stadium in the Olympic village.

The number of homes is likely to be lower than the 29,000 outlined in the existing masterplan

However, Nicholson said that other features of the masterplan would remain, including the park running the length of the valley.

Nicholson said that the regeneration of the area could be delivered over the same seven to eight year period that the Olympic project would take.

Jason Prior, director of architect EDAW and leader of the 2012 bid masterplan team, said although the government had promised to build a velodrome and aquatic centre even if London did not win, the main stadium would not be needed.

Nicholson said that if the capital bidded again, securing spaces for Olympic sites in the valley would be more difficult. He also played down the shortage in planning applications coming forward in the Lower Lea Valley as a result of the uncertainty surrounding the Olympic bid.

  • Richard Brown, the head of the Greater London Authority’s Architecture and Urbanism Unit, has been seconded to the 2012 bid.