Lord Coe tribute to 
forces’ role 
in success of Games

The chairman of Locog visited Hainault temporary camp in Essex along with Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir David Richards to give a “heartfelt thank you” to troops who are helping provide security at the Games.

The temporary camp, built by G4S on a site decided by Locog, houses around 3,500 troops drafted in to help provide security at the Games. It is also the base for around 300 G4S staff.

Lord Coe visited the site yesterday morning, meeting troops from all three services who have been carrying out different roles at the Olympic Park and ExCeL Centre.

He said: “The reason I’m here is really out of gratitude, to thank those guys for stepping in, admittedly quite late in the day, and also to thank their families who I know have possibly had some of their summer plans disrupted.

“I really genuinely think that when we look back at these Games one of the defining features will be the involvement and the commitment of our armed services.

“They’ve discharged their duties with professionalism, with humour, and with grace, and that has really gone noticed in pretty much every corner of this project.”

Some military personnel have complained that their involvement in the Olympics is a thankless task after they were drafted in at short notice in reaction to the G4S scandal.

Some said they had little access to watch events and complained about poor living conditions, especially at Tobacco Dock in east London.

Yesterday, Lord Coe and the general toured Hainault’s temporary camp, visiting its catering facilities, gym and welfare tent, meeting troops along the way.

The Locog chairman said: “I also wanted to make the point that I was not only grateful, I’m also respectful of the fact that some of them had to have their plans changed. Some thought they would be on leave and that will have affected their families, so for me it was a heartfelt thank you for doing this.”