General Matters

Mary Macleod Excerpts

Tuesday 17th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mary Macleod (Brentford and Isleworth) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Southend West (Mr Amess) and to have listened to all his suggestions.

On this, the House’s final sitting day before the biggest event that this country will probably ever host, it is only right and proper that we should mention the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games. It is now about 10 days until they start, and the M4 and A4, which go through my constituency, are starting to bustle as the athletes and officials arrive, along with the visitors who will be attending the games. The whole United Kingdom is looking forward to an excellent summer of sports and, of course, to lots of British medals.

I would like to focus today on the legacy of the games and on what can be done to maximise it. In fact, I shall pick up on one of the points that my hon. Friend the Member for Southend West made. London’s bid for the games always included a comprehensive plan for a legacy, to make the most of the event for the whole UK. Among the priorities was the need to harness the UK’s passion for sport in order to increase grass-roots participation by young people and to encourage the whole population to become more physically active. These are the first Olympics to have a school games—that is likely to be copied by Rio in 2016, and further into the future—to which 14,000 schools across the country have signed up. The school games recently had their first finals at the Olympic park.

An extra £500 million will go into sport in the next five years, and much has been done right across the country. Locally, 180 coaches have been trained, and today I have heard that St Mary’s tennis club in Isleworth has secured Olympic legacy funding of just under £50,000 to upgrade its clay court facilities. Many other programmes are being supported, including the Hitz rugby programme, the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust, and the Kickz football programme delivered by Brentford football club community sports trust and the Met police. There is lots going on.

Another priority for the legacy plans is to exploit the economic growth opportunities offered by our hosting the games. The Prime Minister recently said that we expect the games to bring more than £13 billion of benefit to the UK. On the back of the games, VisitBritain has launched its biggest ever global tourism campaign, supported by the GREAT campaign, which is expected to result in 4.6 million extra visitors.

A further aspect of the legacy will involve developing the Olympic park for regeneration, which is already happening, along with promoting community engagement and achieving participation among all groups in society through the games. I recently attended the Olympic torch relay in Osterley, which brought together primary schools from across the borough. I am now looking forward to my Olympic torch relay, which will take place on 24 July. It will come over Kew bridge before heading through Brentford and on to Hounslow.

My key point today is how we build on that legacy. I would want to build on it by using part of that Olympic funding to support London Air Ambulance. There is a great link, because London Air Ambulance is supporting the Olympics, and sport is, in essence, about health. As my hon. Friend the Member for Southend West mentioned, we have one helicopter in London that covers the entire area within the M25. It supports over 10 million people over 600 square miles. Elsewhere in the country, there is one helicopter for 1.5 million people. If we make comparisons internationally, London looks way behind. We have one air ambulance and no back-up. Last week, maintenance was necessary, and no support was available.

What the air ambulance does is give world-class trauma care, reducing death in cases involving such injuries by 30% to 40%. I am sure that if any Members or their families were involved in a serious accident and were in need of an air ambulance, we would want London Air Ambulance to be available. On 7 July 2005, London’s air ambulance flew 26 missions to the various bomb sites and treated more than 700 people. Demand is increasing across London, and we have to remember that London Air Ambulance is a charity—it is supported by the NHS, but it is a charity—and that it needs additional funding.

I call on the Government and those responsible for legacy development to consider proposals to provide sponsorship support through the London Legacy Development Corporation, with agreement to use the Olympic logo, and help fund another helicopter with the Olympic logo on it that would be part of the long-term legacy and would help to continue to save Londoners’ lives.

I conclude by wishing every success to team GB and everyone involved in the games. I look forward to the London 2012 games and the opportunities they will provide to demonstrate to the world that London is truly the greatest city in the world.