In 2005, as Lord Coe presented London's bid for the 2012 Olympic Games it became clear that providing a legacy of facilities, along with boosting participation rates were at the heart of the campaign.
Since 2005 however, England has suffered a deep recession. As a result of this recession, severe budget cuts were made in June of this year. One of the areas to suffer badly as a result of these cuts has been sport. Lord Coe's promises have been left looking particularly hollow as a result of the cuts.
Conservative sport minister Hugh Robertson admitted that the new budget has caused community sport to take "a major hit".
So how exactly has sport been affected?
-The building of new sports facilities for schools, that would have costed £6.05bn was cancelled partway through.
-Huge cuts to the £1bn local authorities spend on sport and recreation anually, all of which is discretionary.
-A £2bn cut to the total budget of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport by 2015.
-£65 million cut by scrapping the plan to provide free swimming for under 16s and over 60s, as well as cancelling the refurbishment of swimming pools.
The London 2012 Olympics are a great opportunity for Britain to catch up with the rest of the world and become more competitive for future World Championships and Olympic games. The Manchester Aquatics centre and Velodrome, left as a legacy from the 2002 Commonwealth Games have already shown how valuable facilities can be in providing community sport, as well as developing world class athletes.
It's a shame then, that the government appears unable to look at the importance of these Olympics in long term development.
Ben Brown
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