Olympics "Utterly Wrong" To Charge To Watch Cycling At Box Hill

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Wednesday 22nd February 2012

London 2012 organisers are being asked to reconsider their 'utterly wrong decision' to charge spectators for the Olympics cycling road race at Box Hill.

Baroness Dee Doocey,  who chairs the Olympic committee on the London Assembly, has also told LBC 97.3 that LOCOG and the Government are 'out of touch' about Olympic tickets.

She told us she'll be questioning them next month. She said: "I'm very unhappy about that [Box Hill]. We were promised cycling was going to be free - and i think for them to go back on that promise now is totally wrong I'm going to ask them to seriously reconsider that decision I think its completely and utterly wrong.

"They are saying they need to restrict access - but there are many ways to do that don't need to charge people for it I can't think of any reason that would justify charging for something that was promised to the public. As in 'don't worry if you haven't got a ticket there are lots of events you can see free like Marathon and cycling' - you can't then go back and say well actually some if its free and some you'll have to pay!"

Tickets are being sold to watch the cycling at Box Hill in an effort to limit the number of spectators on the hill, which is designated as an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Protesters had attempted to get the route changed in order to protect the habitat in the Surrey countryside, which is a popular cycling route, due to its steep switchback roads.

Baroness Doocey was also critical of Hugh Robertson for saying that calls for ticketing transparency was a distraction.

She added: "I thought it was ill-judged. I think he's very much out of touch with normal people i believe that the public really does need to know how many tickets have been sold at what prices so we really know if they're really affordable prices for normal people and not just a games for the rich.

"We want to know now - so we can say the last million tickets really do need to be cheap so people can go to the games and its not just the wealthy."