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It would be good to see an homest and open look being taken at the possiblity of moving the olympic shooting to Bisley: I have been greatly unimpressed by the quality of the financial information on the cost of Woolwich vs Bisley made available to me as a parliamentarian.

So let me get this straight, several hundred athletes having to spend an extra 20-30 minutes commuting or saving the tax payer 40 million quid!! No brainer,.... with Boris all the way on this one!!

I'm afraid Boris Johnson is showing that he completely lacks any understanding of the Olympics. Just for one moment step back and stop looking at the occasion as items on a balance sheet. I want my kids to enjoy this occasion - this is likely to be the only opportunity they will have in their lifetime to watch the Olympics in their own country. What a pity if they have to travel to venues miles from the Olympic Park where the Olympic atmosphere will be completely lacking.

The same goes for the athletes taking part. All of those athletes have trained for years to compete at the Olympics. They deserve the opportunity to compete as part of the Olympic family.

And yes Boris, I'm a taxpayer and a Council Tax payer living in London. We don't all agree that this is a waste of money - far from it.

The practicality of building an outdoors Olympic Specification Range Complex in an inner city area is coming to the forefront. Ever seen an Olympic Specification Range Complex in London before; no, because there isn’t one.
The thought that a London Borough be gifted the Olympic Shooting Events unseen, without a construction / safety overlay, is a nonsense.
Shooting Ranges look like the following link:-

Still, the poor old taxpayer is going to be hit with the bill; so, nobody on the purse strings is bothered at all.

It would be great if they were using the boxing as a chance to spread a bit of the legacy around London (as all of us are paying, but only East London seem to be getting anything back) and actually replaced Wembley Arena, which is, frankly, an eyesore, but as they're not going to do that anyway, I really can't see the point of making a big fuss about 40 million quid when so much more money has already been wasted (What was it? 159 million overspend on the land?). I can't help but think that Boris has seen this as chance to make a show even though it's not really that big a deal.

To be fair to the athletes, if the organisers are thinking of making them use the tube they're daft. I used to make the journey on the tube from N.W London to Stratford every day to get to uni, and I certainly wouldn't be keen if I was an athlete and I had to face that before the most important day of my life.

Is this new thrifty Boris the same one that demanded that the roof on the Olympic Stadium be extended so that it covered all spectators at no specified cpost (but I bet more than £ 20m).

The same Boris that wants the stadium to keep the 80,000 seats - again at no specificed cost but probbably a lot more than £ 20m for possible use is England win 2018 world cup bid? The same Boris who says the buildings are alreay too expensive to run afterwards?

In the past, one of the reasons why the Games have bneen so expensive is because of continual changes to specifications of buildings (usually demanded by politicians and not thw IOC of the sports federations) etc which are always more expensive than if in the original designs. London apparently have spent more time on getting the designs right first time and keeping control of the costs.

Boris can make his point but acting like a 5 year old and screaming at the meeting (as reported) is no way for a suppsed serious politician to act.

Also, when did Boris suddenly become an expert in international sporting requirements?

I'm with Boris on the switch to Wembley and the ExCel centre. The commute time is nothing in comparison to the savings, and it's never made sense to me for the IOC to focus on a compact games. Just like a World Cup makes use of new and existing venues across a country, the Olympics should make use of venues across the city.

How the IOC could object to a few sports being moved just a few miles when football is being played up in Glasgow I've got no idea.

If the argument regarding the use of Wembley Arena is solely based on excessive travel times, can I suggest that it would cost a lot less than £40m to fly them along with al thier coaches and the IOC official from Stratford to Wembley and back every day by helicopter.

Just a thought on Adrian's piece tonight 22.9.09 about Olympic lanes. It's not so much that Olympic lanes are written into the Host City contract so that athletes can get to the Stadium on time - that after all is what the Olympic Village is for. It's more to do with getting the IOC top brass to the Park from their West End hotels. 2012 are supposed to point the way forward for the Games of the future. The London 2012 Games will be the first not to damage the planet. There is some cutting-edge recycling going on out there at Stratford! The IOC 'Family' has to catch up with the times and catch the tube. Just like the rest of us. Let's ask Princess Anne to take this one up.