Q&A

It may have been slightly overshadowed by the ongoing rows over funding, staffing and marketing at the London 2012 Olympics, but Glasgow has been steadily gaining momentum in its bid to host the Commonwealth Games in 2014. A decision on whether or not Glasgow will follow where the capital and Manchester have led in putting together winning bids will be made in Sri Lanka on 9 November. However the initial signs in the battle with Nigerian capital Abuja are encouraging with Glasgow receiving a glowing report from the Commonwealth Games Federation evaluation committee after a recent four-day visit.

The former heavy-industry powerhouse has also done itself no harm in appointing Casey to lead its bid as he is a veteran of the successful Manchester 2002 Games.

How important do you think winning the Games will be to the city’s on-going regeneration?

There’s so much regeneration going on in the city already which is fantastic. Although the Games are not the cause of this regeneration, they are contributing to much of it. What we are really doing is bringing back into play some of the areas of the city that are currently neglected. An area such as the Clyde Gateway in the east of the city is a massive area of brownfield land and is where much of the new build for the Games would take place.

If you don’t win the Games how much will that set back regeneration in Glasgow?

I don’t think that if we fail to win the Games that that will set things back at all. What is remarkable here is that we have got so much regeneration coming together now just at the right time for the bid.

What lessons have you learnt from the successful Manchester and London bids?

The key lesson is to plan for the legacy. It can’t just be something you leave until after the 11 days of the Games are up. We are planning for the impact 15-20 years afterwards. Also, we are building on an existing strong legacy of sporting venues. Seventy per cent of the venues are already in place and we have committed funding for a further 20%. This will make it much easier for us to control the costs and is certainly one lesson we have learned from London.