London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Bill

I shall be brief. My noble friend has answered one or two of my questions about this clause and the Olympic route network, but I am dying to know what it is going to be. It is my recollection that part of winning the bid was the vision of having routes across the capital. There was not a single car apart from those of the very important people, be they competitors or VIPs, skimming from Wembley to Stratford or Weymouth, or wherever else they need to go and wherever they may be staying. I am not clear about what the network is and how it will be developed. This is a probing question because I accept that there must be some kind of routes, but what are we talking about? Are we talking about Weymouth to Bristol, or Weymouth to London? Are we talking about the North Circular road, the M1, or Stratford to everywhere else which could be of interest, as well as between the venues? I do not know where they are supposed to be. Secondly, who is going to use them? The message has been that all the spectators should go by public transport. That is probably in the plan, because they will not be allowed to park on the site, so we are talking about competitors and VIPs. Perhaps cyclists could use them. That is a green thought and, as a keen cyclist, I would love to. When there is a procession around here, if you can get on the route, nobody stops you. The problem is getting off it again, but that is a minor point. When will we have the routes? The noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, was talking in terms of the period of the games. During the games, will the routes be open just from the start to finish periods or will they be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week? That will rather affect the people living in the vicinity. Which vehicles will use them? Will they just be authorised vehicles or will other vehicles be able to use them, and will they be able to use them in both directions or only in one direction? Let us say that you went from Wembley to Stratford. Heaven knows how you would do that—I cannot think off hand—but let us suppose that you did. Would there be any facilities for traffic to cross the route? There is a ring of steel around most of central London, which is interesting but not terribly exciting. I suppose people will say, ““Thank God it’s August””. Will people be allowed to cross the routes and how, physically, will they do that? Will there be a police road block at every junction or will waves of people be escorted by police on motorcycles with blue flashing lights? My noble friend—thank goodness—said that the arrangements would be applied to roads with a light touch and only as absolutely necessary. But, until the games start, I am not sure that anyone will know which roads are necessary and which are not. The only thing is that there will be less traffic because it will be August. Potentially there is a serious problem here for the rest of the inhabitants of London and the surrounding areas at other venues. I can see why the Government want to have carte blanche in what they do, but it would be nice to know a little more about what is planned and when and how it will be implemented.