London 2012 Olympics torch relay route upsets England's most deprived ward

[richard]

Organisers of the London 2012 Olympics have been accused of scoring an own goal after deciding that the torch relay should miss the most deprived ward in England.

David Cameron is being asked to lobby Lord Coe to ensure the relay passes through Jaywick Sands, on the north-east Essex coast, to give residents the chance to "gain from the hopes and dreams" of the Games.

Councillors from all political parties on Tendring district council wrote to the prime minister after they voted unanimously to condemn the decision by Locog, the London organising committee, to bypass the ward.

Jaywick Sands, built as a resort in the late 1920s, was placed first in the 2010 indices of multiple deprivation, which uses official statistics for crime, unemployment, health, income and disability to assess where 32,482 neighbourhoods rank in a national poverty league table. Some 62% of the working-age population in Jaywick Sands are on benefits, compared with the national average of 15%.

In their letter to the prime minister, the councillors complained that Jaywick Sands is the only one of England's top 10 most deprived wards not to have the torch relay pass close by.

"The closest it comes to Jaywick is 13 miles, a world away for the people living there," the councillors wrote.

"Despite being less than 60 miles from Stratford, the home of London 2012, Tendring and its residents have yet to receive any benefit from the Olympic Games. The fact that the published route misses Tendring has led to intense public disappointment and anger. This is a massive own goal as it is people living in areas like Tendring that have much more to gain from the hopes and dreams of London 2012 than elsewhere," they added.

The councillors said the oversight could easily be resolved. "A very minor detour of the torch's route to Colchester, taking the torch into Tendring, would immediately solve this issue, adding only a few minutes to the current schedule. It would help to demonstrate that although we have residents living in the most deprived area in the country, they are not ignored and forgotten by the government."

Jaywick Sands, which is two miles along the coast from Clacton-on-Sea, is England's largest surviving example of the inter-war "plotlands" movement in which land was sold in little strips, usually to Londoners in the case of Essex. The town was built in 1928 by Frank Stedman, the Fabian property developer, who sold two-bedroom bungalows as "chalets".


Source
By Nicholas Watt
Latest US and world news, sport and comment from the Guardian | guardiannews.com | The Guardian