Autumn is now well and truly upon us, and as the leaves fall I can't help but feel nostalgic about the spectacular summer we have enjoyed. We were privileged to be at the heart of the celebrations and sporting action during the London 2012 Games.
As a person who has nurtured a keen interest in horticulture and biodiversity throughout my life I can assure you that The Royal Parks worked tirelessly with event organisers to protect the parks and minimise the impact of these events, while ensuring that they were safe for visitors. Now that the Games are over our focus is on returning the parks to their former glory and our restoration plans are well and truly under way.
The Royal Parks' teams in Greenwich, St James's and Hyde Park, which hosted Olympic and Paralympic venues, sprang into action as soon as the different events were over. Three quarters of Greenwich Park has been restored and is open to the public, work to re-turf sections of St James's Park is almost complete and the area of Hyde Park that hosted the Triathlon and Marathon Swimming venue is making good progress. Day by day the parks are being returned to their previous condition and in spring 2013 it will be difficult to tell that they welcomed over two million spectators and visitors during the Games.
Over the coming weeks weeks we're going to hear about progress from the Park Managers of St James's Park and Greenwich Park. In the meantime here is an update about Hyde Park.
Hyde Park hosted a wide variety of attractions during the London 2012 Games, including BT London Live on the Parade Ground and the venue for the Triathlon and Marathon Swimming competitions in the Cockpit section of the park. All of the temporary structures that were put in place to make these events a success were removed in September and work to restore the Cockpit area is making good progress.
800,000 visitors watched Olympic competitions on the big screens at BT London Live and enjoyed concerts such as The Proms and Paul Simon in Hyde Park. This was only possible because we allowed woodchip to be put across Hyde Park's Parade Ground after a prolonged period of heavy rain early in the summer.
To allow park users to access this part of the park safely the wood chip will remain on the Parade Ground until early in the New Year, when as planned a programme of restoration work will begin.
This restoration of the Parade Ground will be paid for by the concert promoters and led by Hyde Park's management team, who have experience in and are experts in planning for large events and restoring the park effectively and to a high standard.
During London 2012, 11 Olympic and Paralympic events took place across six Royal Parks - each one looked incredible and gave us the unique opportunity to showcase our beautiful parks to the world. Now we look forward to spring 2013 when the parks will be restored to their former glory.
