Olympic Welfare Centre on Arena Fields

As you can all see - the Olympic Welfare Centre for the construction site workers is taking shape directly opposite us. This will have all the amenities that the builders will need while they are constructing the International Press Centre and the Media Centre.

I suppose it's full of stuff like offices, toilets, showers, canteens, sick bays, chill-out rooms - somewhere to shelter in a storm.

It is an absolutely crucial building for the men & women building the Olympics.

But it doesn't half look boring!!

As some of you already know - we have been chatting to Julie King over the canal - and gave her a few ideas about making the view a bit more beautiful for us here in Leabank Square.

This is a quote from her last email: "As you know the installation of the porta-cabins has commenced and we are extremely happy to place some form of artwork on the western exterior that faces Lea Bank Square as previously discussed with you. It would be useful if Gemma Rapson from my team could meet with you and possibly some other residents as soon as possible to gather your thoughts on an acceptable design.

Once the porta-cabins are complete we will be placing trees along the embankment in front of the cabins to provide an additional screen. These will be approximately 5-6 meters tall and spread along the 50 metre stretch of cabins. These will be potted trees so their positioning can be altered if needed."

This is just fantastic news!! So not only can we have some input into the artwork on the Welfare Centre facing us - but they are also going to plant some (hopefully evergreen) trees directly in front of it as well!!

I know (through some of the emails on the secure system) that there are residents that are still very sceptical about what the ODA is doing for us. Hopefully we can all see that Julie & her team really are on our side - and do actually listen to us.

Please can we see if we can knock our heads together over some suggestions for artwork - especially the front 3 blocks - as this directly affects them for the next 4 years. I know we all have a meeting overload in the next few months - but if we could all contribute some ideas up here on the blog - and through the specific artwork leaflets dropping through our doors - then a few of us can get these checked over by the ever-enthusiastic Gemma.

So - go on - get those creative juices flowing!! The more ideas we present to the ODA - the more of a chance we have of getting something we would actually like to look at for the next few years.