Olympic apprentices may be sent 100 miles to train...

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Workers could be forced to go to Norfolk or Kent as funding freeze threatens London college plan

Apprentices on the Olympics and Crossrail projects may have to complete their courses in Norfolk or Kent if the London Development Authority cannot find enough funding to build the extra training centre it had planned for London.

Apprentices are already being trained on two east London sites – Eton Manor and Newham – but the LDA has applied to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) for a grant of more than £5m to build an additional centre in Cathall Road, Walthamstow with a capacity for 5,000 trainees.

However, the LSC has placed a moratorium on capital spending in January while it reprioritises its projects, which could derail the LDA’s plans.

Colin Middleton, senior Olympics opportunities manager for the LDA, said the college at Cathall Road was “essential” and that without it the only alternative would be to use the National Construction College premises at Bircham Newton in Norfolk and Erith in Kent to train the apprentices.

He said that the training would take place whether or not the new campus was built, because the Olympic Delivery Authority had to fulfil its commitment to employ 2,250 apprentices (including 350 front-line construction apprentices) on the 2012 project.

This is to help meet the government’s target to create 35,000 extra training places in 2010.

The LSC has said the moratorium would last until March, but even when it is lifted the Olympics training scheme will be competing against many colleges for funding.

Middleton said: “There are a number of further education colleges that have applied for funding, which has certainly increased the competition. There is always the chance we won’t get the grant.”

...as ODA dumps 3,000m3 of radioactive waste at 2012 site

About 3,000m3 of radioactive material has been stored under a bridge at the Olympic site, it has emerged.

The Olympic Delivery Authority admitted this week that the contaminated soil was buried at a site north of the main stadium at the end of last year. It said: “As we announced last year, small amounts of material containing low-level radioactive elements was found during the clean-up of the site. In accordance with Environment Agency guidance this material, which contains a low enough level of radioactive material to be classed as ‘exempt’ [from rules about contaminated substances] under current environmental law, has been safely buried in a cell under a bridge embankment on site.”

It said the cell, under the approach ramp to one of the bridges over the River Lea, was covered and capped on all sides and “in no way poses a risk to the health of the workforce or public now or in the future”.

A 2012 planning document, seen by Building, said any future housing built in the area would need to minimise radon gas seepage.

In 2006, George Galloway wrote to the government warning that the London Games could become known as “the toxic Olympics”.