Security is too lax, says Excel

5 April 2012

The owners of an Olympic venue are refusing to accept the security plan drawn up by Games chiefs because it is too lax.

Bosses at the Excel Centre, which is due to host eight Olympic and five Paralympic events this summer, will refuse to hand over the venue unless tougher checks are agreed. Lord King of Bridgwater, former defence secretary Tom King now an Excel board member, said Games chiefs needed a "shot in the arm" to make them address flaws in their planning.

Under the existing security plan, which has been drawn up without the involvement of Excel's management, intensive searches of the site will start about three weeks after the venue is handed over to the London Olympic Organising Committee on June 20. But Excel management insists that this is too "slow", and is prepared to refuse to "sign over" to Locog unless its concerns are addressed.

A spokeswoman for Locog said: "We are working with each venue on the security regime we require during the Games which is significantly greater than current security arrangements at the venues."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in