The Unofficial Weymouth & Portland 2012 Olympic Blog

The company behind the Bridport based Brit-valley railway have made a bid to create a light railway link between Weymouth & Portland serving passengers and freight, said to be worth £60 million.

The group is currently trying to secure scenic light railways across the Jurassic coast to boost tourism and would look to have the railway operational in time for the 2012 Olympics.

The proposed service features narrow gauge tram along the Rodwell trail route, previously a railway anyway in former glory days and later planning to connect the line to the Weymouth quayside.

The proposal does of course face strong opposition from some committee members who would just prefer Weymouth’s transport system stays in the dark ages and gets clogged up by ever increasing traffic.

Providing this project is achievable this would surely be a great and environmentally friendly way to reduce the catastrophic congestion that the games will bring and will be a great alternative to the bus and car to travel to Portland. The presentation is on Monday January 15th at St Nicolas Church, Buxton Road.

Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy is battling it out with other sailing institutions around the globe to host The America’s Cup, the most prestigious sailing competition in the world.

Sailing enthusiasts are backing the bid as the Sailing academy becomes ever more popular with those who have graced our waters, hosting the competition would bring a massive boost to the local economy of up to 500 million.

Sir Keith Mills, chief executive of the London 2012 Olympic bid stated an official announcement would be made in the coming weeks.

VisitBritain tourism agency has offered advice to Weymouth & Portlands tourist attractions: ‘Start preparing now’. Top on the agenda according to the agency is the need to learn foreign languages to help the influx of foreign visitors.

Lord Coe has jumped in on the act describing the games as a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity for the UK’. Management committee chairman Brian Ellis commented the borough had to ‘grab the games with both hands’:

“We have to make sure that we have a proper welcome ready for foreign visitors if we are to reap economic benefits before, during and after the Games. If we get in early we can make sure that the benefits to Weymouth and Portland carry on long after the Games are over.

“We have to realise that when visitors from another country arrive in Weymouth and Portland they need to be properly welcomed and, where possible, fully assisted as far as their living needs and requirements are concerned.”

The bottom line is that visitors from all countries are made to feel welcome and leave the town with a great impression so that they will be visiting our shores for years to come. Let’s hope they don’t come across our ‘polite’ youth population then.

The official London 2012 Olympics website has launched their own blog (I’m flattered!). The main focus is on behind the scenes developments attributed to delivering the games on time (like Wembley) and on budget. Although I suspect this will mainly be used as a propaganda tool it’s still worthy of a look and a bookmark.

Website Open 4 Business has added a guide for local businesses planning to take advantage of the 2012 Olympic games, it covers actions that can started now in preparation right through to post game opportunities. The guide can be found on the Open4Business website.

Dorchester is being considered by Olympic chiefs to be used as a park and ride base, hoping visitors will adopt the system preventing their cars from adding to Weymouth’s already crippling congestion.

West Dorset District Council recently have also been asked to support the recommendation in preparation for the 2012 games. Scheme details emerged due to an update report on how preparations for the games are progressing.
Nick Thornley, community enabling officer for WDDC commented the Dorset Olympic Steering Group, responsible for planning and delivering the sailing event were looking at issues covering transport, event management, visitor management and communications to create a ‘lasting legacy’ for Dorset.

An initial proposal for a park and ride scheme, based on Weymouth avenue roundabout has already been rejected.

The case for the Weymouth relief road hopefully made progress recently as members of Weymouth & Portland Chamber of Commerce (WPCC) presented the case for prioritising the project as although the Government has agreed funding, it has fallen down the pecking order to other projects currently underway in the South West.

Previous WPCC president David Beaman heading the presentation stated only time would tell if their efforts had been successful.

He briefed committee members and gave them a letter - written by himself and chamber president David Johnston - stressing the need for the relief road.

The letter told of the chamber’s disappointment at not being given the highest possible priority’ for the road.

Mr Beaman’s letter stated Weymouth would benefit on three major fronts:

-Employment opportunities
-Release the full economic potential of the 2012 sailing events being hosted in Weymouth.
-Improve the live of people living on Dorchester road and reduce traffic congestion in the town centre and between Weymouth & Dorchester.

Should the move fail, Mr Beaman promised further lobbying would follow.

My personal opinion is that this road is essential to enable Weymouth to grow commercially, one of our biggest employers; New Look felt the situation was so dire they moved their entire distribution operation, Portland port is at a loss due to the poor road links.

Families stay away from Weymouth at the weekends knowing that they will face a 30-60 minute queue just to get into the town centre, instead choosing to shop elsewhere.
The relief road is by no means the final solution but it’s certainly a start. Can we honestly expect our traffic infrastructure to cope during the 2012 games when it is proven on a daily basis every summer that its already inadequate.

The greens major argument is the damage to the environment the new route will cause, but how about the damage it would save due to cars not being stuck in a 30 minute queue in/out of Weymouth each and every day, enabling commuters and holidaymakers alike to reach their destination quicker.
I appreciate there would be a horrible blot on the landscape by cutting a wedge out of the ridgeway however the same was said of the Puddletown dual carriageway when that was being planned… sometimes we have to put ourselves and our needs first!

Weymouth & Portland Borough Council has drafted a plan to increase CCTV coverage watching the Sailing centre and its surrounding area. Although still in draft form working its way around various committees environment director Richard Burgess says “There is CCTV at the sailing academy at the moment but we’d like to link it up with our control centre and perhaps add to it.”

Regular disturbances in Fortuneswell and Easton have earmarked it as an area of concern and likely to face increased CCTV coverage.

He also stated: “What we’d really like is a situation where one person can monitor the hotspots and co-ordinate any response to problems.”

Borough Major Howard Legg added “Even after the Olympics any increase in CCTV would prove invaluable to Weymouth and Portland in the long-term.

“Just like the relief road, it’s needed for the Olympics and will be needed afterwards.”
John Tweed, of the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, said: “We have CCTV here at the moment but a link to council’s control room would be very beneficial.

“During the Olympics the site will be very secure. Only those with Olympic accreditation will be allowed in. It will not only be useful for fighting crime but also to monitor traffic”

So there you have it, apparently we don’t have enough CCTV cameras being the most watched society in the world.

Sebastian Coe is scheduled to open Weymouth College’s new sports centre on October 3^rd at 10.45am whilst on an ‘honours’ trip visiting the area and Sailing centre to bang the 2012 Olympic drum.

The SW 2012 games director Mr Lavender said “The opening of Weymouth College’s new sports centre by Sebastian Coe underlines how important the London 2012 Olympic Games will be for the region and what a focus our area will have for the games”.

There will also be a team south west baton relay around Weymouth & Portland.continued…

Local clubs have been discussing restricting public sailing along with establishing a British training camp at Castle Cove as part of the Olympic preparations.

The discussions are between the RYA, Weymouth Yacht clubs and a forum for the sailing clubs and part of the plans are key ‘mock olympic’ games events to be held in 2010 and 2011 to test our facilities capability to handle large scale competitions without crippling the town (lets pray).

continued…

The RYA has apparently been in discussions with Castle Cove sailing club about setting up a training camp for British sailors, which would include improvements to their facilities currently available. The sailing academy will be closed in the run up to the games which is why they cannot use that.

A Castle Cove Sailing Club spokeswoman stated that one of the primary concerns of the yacht clubs was access to racing areas and facilities for members in the run up to the Games.

The current belief is that security on the waters where events are taking place will be similar to previous events staged at the sailing academy.