Streetlife

There's probably more to come.  Did you see in the paper that wiomen volunteer chauffeurs, who might end a shift at Stratford at 3am and asked how they would get home at that time of the morning were told ................ wait 2 hrs for the underground to start!  Well I for one wouldn't be a volunteer any more with that caring attitude.

It seems that despite all the months and months of planning, nothing's really been planned properly and as we're throwing so much money at G4S for totally inadequate security, then it's no wonder it's way over budget, as expected.

I know of G4S officers who are short of work yet are not being given shifts.
I have heard of very able people who passed all of G4S's tests yet were told we don't need you!
Very poor management from the start I think.

Pam..All the govt care about is themselves and their rich pals.
THEY are all in it together!

Neil..The whole thing is now a total disgrace and an utter shambles and the world press are saying the same.

I wonder why G4S was the only ones to get the security contract, a job requiring this amount of guards should have been split into several smaller contracts and given to several companies.

I am a Games Maker with London2012 & have been involved with LOCOG in a voluntary capacity for almost a year now. I am proud of the chance to showcase London & show the world what a really wonderful city we live in. I shall be volunteering during the Olympics & Paralympics with some of the 70,000 other volunteers who were chosen from over 200,000 applicants!
We shall help deliver a truly spectacular Games & it would be nice if those of you posting negative comments were a little more supportive of the effort put into these Games by literally thousands of people. I think you should also remember that Newspapers use lurid & exagerated headlines to make money with little interest in accuracy. I should also say that my Grandson has a vacation job before starting University with G4S & he has experienced no problems at all.

Anne D. I am glad that you are doing something that you enjoy but for the rest of us it will not be fun. What with the restrictions of parking and where we can or can't go it is affecting our daily routines. Somepeople have to pass the venue to get to work, this will take them a lot longer due to the amount of additional traffic. I live 3 miles from the venue and have had parking restrictions applied to my road as well as every road throughout the borough.
Just remember that while you are giving your time for free someone will be earning a lot of money for your toiling.

Anne D......Please remind me of the cost of this circus?

The Olympics ugh ugh. Roads blocked off - took us two hours to make a 20 minute journey into London Sunday before last. The dreadful nauseating hype and that horrible Westfield Shopping Centre - visited it once never again. It resembled a large pink marshmallow - all fluffy with no substance.
Permits to park our own cars it is disgusting. Badly paid staff and army getting exploited. Britain is like a communist country with this olympic worship and helicopters flying overhead.

Peter C
I also volunteer at my local Hospital, my local Theatre & help children learn to read in a local Primary school, so by your reckoning my volunteering is making others rich, I don't think so!
I volunteer to put something back into the community to which I belong.

Volunteering to help a hospital or teaching children to read is somewhat different to helping to run an obscenely expensive Olympics. The country is in a recession - we cannot afford this jamboree yet they are using volunteers and badly paid staff for this absurd idiocy which we will all end up paying for.

Louise C
So you ave to have parking permits during the Olympics, you're lucky; I have been paying to park my car near my house for at least 6 years & no I don't live near a Station or shopping precinct just a quiet road in a quiet area of the Borough. At least your restrictions will be lifted after the games mine won't.

Louise C & Ian L

Yes the Games are expensive but the regeneration of a totally derelict area of East London with
a legacy of 2,818 new homes, part social housing & part shared ownership, Chobham Academy for 1,800 students & learning facilities for adult education & a new NHS polyclinic together with an updated transport system is a bonus we would never have had without the Olympics. No Government or Local Authority would have been willing to spend money to improve the area but now we will also have sports facilities that other area of London take for granted.

The money that the olympics has cost is 90% from the public and 10% from compnies. At the end of the fiasco the houses will get new tennants that will be paying rent, the stadiums will also charge for their use but the money that the public have put into the kitty will not be repaid, add that to the fact that the majority of the staff on the olympics are either working for free or on mimimum wages and it is clear to see that someone is filling their pockets at our expense.
Ann you say that you volunteer to help children to read, this is due to another cut that those in power have made as at one time classroom helpers got paid.

I'm afraid that many of us are being negatively affected by the Olympics so don't expect us to change tunes.
As for G4S they cocked it up there is no hiding that fact.
I can assure you they have staff who want more shifts and are not being given the work.

To Anne D
yes sure I'm very lucky - I cannot walk far due to disability and need my car to go out.But the olympic road restrictions effectively baricade me inside our house until they are over.

As for those dreadful polyclinics don't even go there. Appalling impersonal service but the Athletes will be offered free dental treatment when half of Newham cannot afford dentistry. My own dental treatments have run into several thousand pounds but many people cannot afford to see a dentist and NHS dentistry is very patchy  with a shortage of practitioners.
Fortunately for me I can access private treatment but many people cannot do this asnd it makes my blood boil to think of these athletes getting free dentistry.

Peter C
I'm afraid that I can't comment on the figures that you quote as I don't know the breakdown of sponsorship versus public money, however i do know for a fact that all workers at Olympic venues are paid at least the London Living Wage which is £8-50 per hour not the minimum wage of £6-10
Not enough I agree & I know some people will make a lot of money from this venture.

Classroom Assistants are still paid members of staff (my daughter - in -law is one). It is possible that they are used to cover Teacher shortage thereby saving on wages but volunteers like me just work one to one with children who need extra help with their reading.

Louise C

I am sorry to hear that the road restrictions imposed because of the Olympics will effectively confine you to your home for the duration of the Games. I would have thought that some measures should have been introduced to make things easier for those who need a car because of mobility issues. Obviously nobody has taken this into consideration which is bad.

As for Polyclinics some are good & some not so good. The one I have been attending is far preferable to going to Queens Hospital which in my opinion is a nightmare - consulting rooms & waiting areas with no windows & hours spent waiting to be seen by a practitioner.

What I find a joke the cost of going on the orbit. 15 pound to go up the orbit but you have to payfor the olylimpic park village to. So in total 30 pound to go in the orbit that's a joke