What price the comedy mayor’s Olympic legacy? £40,000,000 – or so it would appear.

Just over a month on from the OPLC’s decision to knock back the comedy mayor of Westfield’s bid to procure the Olympic Stadium, and he bounces back – all guns blazing.

Next Monday, at 5:30 p.m., Newham Council will hold an extraordinary meeting of full Council to contemplate investing a small sum in the proposed public enterprise that will be the Olympic Stadium post the 2012 games. Of course, it comes as no surprise to find that the amount mooted is £40,000,000.

It goes without saying that the meeting is to be held in camera and an exempt report will be presented to councillors regarding the proposal.

The document that is available on the Council’s web-site is of some interest as it is peppered with assurances that the authority will not move forward until the financial viability of any such investment is ascertained.

Interestingly, the document moves in the direction (yet again) of the formation of a special purpose vehicle to allow for a legitimate means to generate surpluses.

All hunky-dory, and one can only keep one’s fingers crossed that the motley crew that is Newham councillors put the proposal under detailed scrutiny.

I’d like to think that, as a part of that scrutiny, they will ask who will act as final guarantor(s) for the inevitable £40,000,000? You’ll recall that West Ham United FC was put forward as the guarantor in the original deal.

The financial viability of the joint Newham Council/WHUFC bid was assessed by a coterie of senior council officers. Maybe our stalwart councillors should question the methodology used and ensure that they have an opportunity to check the finer details of any current viability assessment.

Some of the councillors might ask why Newham Council, one of the more fiscally challenged local authorities in the current economic climate, should make such a disproportionate contribution to a venue that will purportedly have a lasting legacy for the whole of London, if not the nation?

And they’ll do all this in under 20 minutes!

A further point: why is the meeting being held in private? The extraordinary meeting held to discuss the financing of the Newham Council/WHUFC bid was held in camera because of a supposed need for commercial confidentiality (something to do with WHU's finances I suppose); however, in this instance it will be public money going to a public venture, there is no external commercial interest... surely openness and transparency are absolute necessities.