Work will begin this week at Greenwich Park to make it ready to host the Olympic Equestrian competition in 2012.
The work will be carried out by sub-contractors working on behalf of the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG), in association with The Royal Parks.
It has been approved by the local planning authority, Greenwich Council, which granted planning permission in March 2010 for both the Test Event in 2011 and events in 2012, subject to a number of planning conditions. LOCOG is now taking action on a number of these planning conditions, which have been agreed with the four statutory consultees: The Royal Parks, English Heritage, Natural England and Sport England.
The work will include:
- Irrigation – water will be applied to the course from time to time to help the grass to grow and to develop stronger root systems. Because of the dry summer, this will happen daily for the first few weeks
- De-compaction – over many years of use the ground in the Park has become closely packed together. Work will reduce this compaction, which in turn will improve the quality of the grass by allowing roots to develop and strengthen
- Mowing – specialist mowers will encourage a thicker, stronger sward of grass
- Other works such as filling minor and localised hollows in the ground using topsoil and turf, removing stones from certain areas of the cross-country course, fertilising the ground and some re-seeding in areas where grass cover is poor