One year to go

Crowds from tonight's Aquatic Centre event are ferried on
fleets of buses back to Pudding Mill Lane and Stratford

Well you heard it from the Mayor himself. With one year to go tonight he said that London will most certainly be ready for the London 2012 Olympic Games in 366 days' time.

There were two events tonight - at Trafalgar Square and at the new Aquatic Centre in the Olympic Park - celebrating one year to go. So now the work gets underway in earnest as London makes its final preparations to open its doors to tens of thousands of visitors from within the UK and from overseas.

I was at the Olympic Park event tonight and there is a tremendous sense of excitement from everyone as we move into this final stage. The venues look fantastic. The new Aquatic Centre is an amazing building - partly temporary which will shrink from a 17,000 seat venue to a 2,500 seat one after the games are over. The stunning roof designed by Zaha Hadid will remain, covering the two pools. The 2,800 tonne steel structure rests on just three concrete supports. But the walls will be replaced and the venue resized for legacy use.

A fleet of buses - from numerous operators including Ensignbus, Stagecoach, Sullivans and others provided shuttle services to the venue from the reception centre and also back to Stratford Station later.

There is a real shift in mood now as the clock ticks down under one year. But the venues are broadly ready, the plans for how everyone gets to the Games are well advanced and there are detailed discussions with very many people who will in some way be affected directly or indirectly.

It will be a most exciting time in London: we have the test events, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the Torch Relay and of course the Games themselves which continue, with the Paralympics into September. And with so many countries competing to hold them every four years, it could easily be another 80 years before London sees the Games again.

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