With the Olympics coming to London East Enders were looking forward to welcoming the marathon runners, in the same way they welcome runners every year during the London Marathon.

However in September 2010 various newspapers published reports that the London Organising Committee were considering alternative routes for the 2012 Olympic Marathon as the original route would not be "Television-friendly" in London's East-end. This decision was confirmed in October 2010.

In April 2010 the London 2012 Marathon Chief, David Bedford, resigned. He accused LOCOG of “appalling" handling of the decision to exclude the East End from the Marathon. He also said that LOCOG failed to consult the people and council in the East End before making their decision to move the marathon.

As a result I wrote to TfL to ask for the release of all data relating to the modelling they did, which LOCOG used to justify their claims that running the marathon in the East End would cause too many traffic problems. TfL wrote back to say that they had not done any such modelling!

The decisions show a disregard for the primary, regeneration, objective of the Games. This is not just about building things but also about getting people to think about and look more positively at the East end when making investment or locational decisions. Hiding the area from the cameras will not achieve this.