THE head of the London Stadium has resigned after an inquiry was opened into the soaring costs to the taxpayer to run the venue as a football stadium.
David Edmonds, the chairman of the London Legacy Development Corporation, responsible for running the Olympic Park following the London 2012 games, has quit amid the row.
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It comes after London mayor Sadiq Khan announced this week he had ordered an investigation into the rising bill for converting the London Stadium for use by West Ham United.
The outlay to modify the stadium from an athletics venue to one fit for the Premier League has risen from £272million to £323m.
There are rising concerns that taxpayers will be saddled with the costs for years to come, with little to show except increasing crowd trouble, which has forced the Hammers into a five-point security plan to stop further trouble.
Part of the reason for the increase is a rise in the cost of installing and operating retractable seating which can be removed for concerts and athletics meetings which still take place there.
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The cost of £8m a year is up from an estimated £300,000 because the company originally contracted for the job had gone bust.
Stadium operators LLDC and the London taxpayer have to pick up the additional costs, as West Ham only contribute £2.5m-a-year rent, plus the one-off £15m for the conversion.
West Ham won the bid to occupy the Olympic Stadium in March 2013, and played their first game there in August 2016, after 112 years at Upton Park.
The LLDC confirmed the news in a statement released today – but did not explicitly mention the new inquiry as Edmonds’ reason for stepping down., having been appointed in September 2015.
David Goldstone, chief executive of the LLDC, said: “David has made an enormous contribution to the legacy of the London 2012 Games and he has helped to steer the organisation through some extremely challenging issues.
“We thank him for all his hard work and wish him well in the future.”
John O'Connell, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, added: "It is apparent that very little - if any - consideration was given to what was to be done with the stadium once the Olympics were over.
"There are very serious questions about the shocking lack of forward planning which has left taxpayers with a hefty bill for a stadium whose viability is uncertain.
"The forthcoming inquiry, which must be conducted efficiently, needs to get to the bottom of how the authorities managed to get themselves into this mess in the first place."
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