Too many major sports events have been staged on London’s streets in the wake of the Olympics, City Hall admits.
Deputy mayor Sir Edward Lister said it was a “fair criticism” that the public had been inconvenienced, adding that City Hall had established a major events board to avoid a repeat.
The Major Events Oversight Board includes representatives of Transport for London, the Met, the Royal Parks and Westminster council. It will scrutinise bids and ensure better co-ordination of events such as Sunday’s London marathon, the Tour de France and next year’s Rugby World Cup.
Sources admit the “straw that broke the camel’s back” was last summer’s world triathlon championships, for which Hyde Park closed for a week.
Sir Edward said he was concerned about the potential for “chaos” at this summer’s Tour de France “Grand Départ” and the 100-mile London to Surrey bike ride.
“The RideLondon100 and the Tour de France are very big, they are important events but you are going to get a certain amount of chaos... We can’t have roads shut every weekend but we don’t want to be killjoys,” he told the Standard.
Sir Simon Jenkins, an outspoken critic of the triathlon and the Royal Parks Agency, overseen by the Mayor, said: “This is excellent. We need reassurance that commercial interests do not have the Mayor by the short hairs.”
