The 2010 London Olympics will be a once in a life time opportunity to our residents and for the borough to enjoy the experience together. The Kingston Conservatives have been working on two proposals. The first proposal is to make sure every school child gets to visit either the Olympics or the Paralympics once and the second proposal is to stage “A Kingston Olympic Festival”. We will discuss and develop our final proposal with the Kingston Youth Council and other community organisations and consult with residents on which of the Borough’s Parks we would be the location for the Festival. Parks to be considered are Fairfield Park (Kingston Town), Victoria Park (Surbiton), King Georges Park (Tolworth) or Manor Park (New Malden) Recreation Ground. The London Olympic Games Organising Committee wants to work with all London Boroughs. We hope these Olympics will make Kingstonians feel good about themselves!

The Kingston Olympic Festival 2012

For the duration of the London 2012 Olympics, the chosen Park would become known as Kingston Olympic Festival Park during the Festival. Within the park we propose:

• The Kingston Olympic Festival Screen & Stage – a large mobile LED screen backing onto the central pathway. Our proposal would be to use a mobile big screen unit with stage that can drive into the Park.
• The Kingston Olympic Festival Arena – a central track/field for activities
• The Kingston Olympic Festival Quarter – a walled, temporary structure along the boundary of the park
• The Kingston Olympic Festival Activity Area – a series of Exhibition / trade stands running along the park boundaries

There will be events for residents every day of the 17 days of the London Olympics. We would hope people of all ages and abilities will take part, from nought to ninety. We will aim to ensure all events are fully inclusive and accessible, we will work with any groups of individuals or organisations who would like to submit entries or teams.’

The programme will encourage local high level sports achievers, clubs, facilities and schools to come together. We can offer an ongoing opportunity to try, inspire and engage young people who currently see neither the point nor have the opportunity to develop a passion for a particular sport’.

Personal Well Being and Health issues are a growing concern and this Olympic Festival will give the Royal Borough of Kingston a great opportunity to promote sports and other related healthy activities. Holding events throughout the day will also allow people of different ages to take part, from mums and toddlers, to the over 60’s as well as school children and adults.

Holding an event of this sort also provides other benefits such as promoting sense of community and civic pride in your local area. This event could be limited to sports alone, but the scope has been widened to include the arts as well to allow a wider community base to participate.

Cllr Howard Jones said “The Olympics are almost upon us and we felt it was an opportunity not to be missed. There are so many great things we can do together. This could also be viewed as a community cohesion project in which we can share cultures, learn new sporting interests and skills, become a little healthier and enjoy the spectacular of one of the greatest sporting events together; the Olympic Games in London! We have taken advice from professional and experienced event organisers who have reviewed the feasibilities and given us both a plan and a budget for making these proposals a reality.

The Council will have to seek approval from the London Organising Committee but we are confident that they will find our proposals acceptable. Lord Coe, Chair of the London 2012 Organising Committee said “We have always been clear – we want London 2012 to be ‘everyone’s Games”.

The funding will come from sponsorship, commercial revenues and the use of specific funding for Health, Culture and Sports promotion already allocated in the Council Budgets. We are delighted that subject to our proposals being approved CNM Estates have agreed to be the principle sponsor. CNM Estates have supported the Rose Theatre in the past. CNM Estates support means we can be confident that we can stage this Festival and do so without increasing our budgeted spend on Health, Sports and Cultural funding in 2012/13. This is exactly what we mean about making the most of every opportunity for our borough!”

Wahid Samdy, Chairman of CNM Estates said “This is exactly what I have been advocating for the last two years! I was delighted to see that someone had listened to my plea for Kingston to make the most of having the Olympics in London. We have been pleased to support the Rose Theatre and delighted to announce that we will support the staging of a Kingston Olympic Festival in 2012. I have young children myself and I want them to have wonderful memories of when the Olympics Games came to London. These proposals will help everyone feel part of this great sporting event and I hope have memories to treasure for years to come. I am committed to making Kingston a better place to live and this will be a pleasure to support.”