Look back with pride and enjoy the legacy from 2012

A year ago Weymouth and Portland welcomed the world to the Olympic and Paralympic sailing competition. As the first anniversary approaches, we look at how the Olympic & Paralympic legacy has helped Dorset. Huge investments have been made which otherwise may not have happened. Improvements to transport, jobs, roads, infrastructure, arts, sports, sailing and tourism are among the benefits explored below.

Roads and public transport, we gained:

• The new £87 million Weymouth Relief Road. This was paid for by the Department for Transport (with a 10 per cent contribution from Dorset County Council). This has reduced journey times between Dorchester and Weymouth and is encouraging new businesses to move to the area
• A £4 million investment in new bus services, bus stops and real time bus and car park information. This was funded by the Department for Transport with a 10 per cent contribution from Dorset County Council
• A £300,000 investment by Dorset County Council in a Dorset Traffic Control Centre, so it can provide first class traffic management systems
• Improvements to the Travel Dorset website which offers comprehensive advice to the public on all forms of travel
• A £2.409 million grant to Dorset County Council for the “Weymouth to Dorchester” Project from the Department for Transport’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund. This money will support economic growth and reduce carbon emissions by investing in and promoting sustainable transport
• More than £50,000 worth of railway station improvements in Weymouth. This was paid for by central Government under the Local Transport Plan allocation and includes refurbished toilets, a wheelchair accessible toilet, a new waiting room and cycle parking shelter, a new shop and a resurfaced car park with levelled access to the station

Improvements for cyclists and walkers include:

• An investment from the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) of £17,000 and £5,000 from Dorset County Council towards 34 new cycle parking berths at Weymouth Railway station and 80 ‘toast’ racks which are being distributed around Dorset providing 800 spaces
• £160,000 investment from the ODA towards new walking and cycling routes in the borough
• A new artist-designed footbridge has been built at Newton Road, Weymouth[w4] . This was paid for by Local Transport Plan money, which comes from central Government
• A new £900,000 pedestrian and cycle bridge has been built, completing a gap in the Rodwell Trail at Newstead Road. A total of £140,000 for the bridge came from the Olympic Delivery Authority, £350,000 came from cycling charity Sustrans and the rest came from the Local Transport Plan allocation from central Government
• The benefits of making Weymouth seafront a car free environment during busy events was clear during the Olympic Games. This will influence local authorities’ plans going forward
• Lottery funded projects to promote walking in Weymouth and Portland. This includes ‘Wild about Weymouth’ which aims to improve access to wildlife sites. Details here: www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/wawap.html

The boost for jobs, business, infrastructure and investment include:

• An £80 million investment at Osprey Quay, site of the Olympic & Paralympic sailing competition. It is now an attractive place to do business. An engineering firm has snapped up an acre of land and there is significant interest in the other plots
• Almost £40 million investment in improving broadband across Dorset. A total of £9.4 million came from the Government and £38 million from private funding and local authorities 
• Improved chances for investment in Dorset after a wide range of national and regional businesses visited the Local Authority/UKTI (UK Trade and Investment) Business Pavilion during the Games. These have been followed up and dozens of businesses have confirmed that they made contacts that led to contracts
• The promotion of other sites across Dorset including Poundbury, Mount Pleasant, Winfrith, Bournemouth Airport, Poole regeneration sites and Bournemouth town centre sites          
• The removal of the former MoD oil tank farm. This has created more employment land and improved the entrance to Portland
• Better working relationships between the private and public sector. During the Olympic & Paralympic Games, businesses, councils and chambers of commerce worked closely together. These relationships helped create the new Weymouth BID (Business Improvement District) in May 2013     

Sailing facilities and harbours, we gained:  

• Worldwide coverage of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This put Weymouth and Portland on the map as the world’s leading sailing centre 
• The expansion of the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy. This makes it an even more attractive place to host elite sailing competitions. The Royal Yachting Association’s Sail for Gold contest was held here in June 2013. The academy is also used by the local community, which benefits from having first class facilities on its doorstep
• A new sailing school and windsurfing training centre at the academy
• A new Royal Yachting Association training centre at Osprey Quay
• Improvements to Weymouth Harbour including new pontoons, marine equipment, new showers and a better harbour reception
• A new £25 million marina and marine workshops, built partly to serve Olympic & Paralympic preparations and services

The tourism boost, included:

• A £3.5 million regeneration that transformed Weymouth seafront. It included larger pavements to create sitting out areas, the restoration of Victorian shelters and lamps, new toilets, palm trees, recycling points, a new sand sculpture shelter and the repainting of the Jubilee Clock. More than £1 million was invested by the Arts Council and English Heritage          
• Weymouth and Portland being showcased to a potential TV audience of four billion during Games time. Outstanding images of our World Heritage Jurassic Coast were beamed across the world to people who may never have heard of Dorset
• More than 300 media reporters, radio and TV companies registered with the Games time media centre set-up in the town.  
• A £1.1 million expansion of the Chesil Beach Centre, which included a £550,000 award from the Heritage Lottery Fund    
• A €460,000 European fund award for the “CYCLE West” project to promote south west England and north west France as a destination for cycle tourism and the delivery of the ‘Grand and Petit Tour de Manche’ (tourdemanche.com)
• A £4 million plus private sector investment to the Riviera Hotel at Bowleaze Cove
•  Marine and coastal access improvements along the coast path from Portland to Lulworth
• The creation and improvements of new nature parks at Lorton Valley, Chesil Beach, Radipole Lake and Portland Quarries. More details available from Natural England here: https://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/category/49002
• Fantastic positive feedback from visitors, 87 per cent said they would return and 96 per cent said they would recommend the area.

 The sporting, arts and cultural legacy, includes:

• A 2013 Dorset Festival of Sports inspired by the Games. Sports and other fun activities will be on offer from 27 July to 4 August 2013 to promote sport across Dorset. It follows the huge success of the free sports arena on Weymouth Beach, which welcomed 100,000 people during Games time. This year’s events will not be on the same scale, but people will again get the chance to try a range of sport on Weymouth Beach and at leisure centres across Dorset. The festival includes a day of Paralympic sport
• Arts and cultural events, including Weymouth & Portland 2013 schools banner project, featuring 36 new banners for the seafront and harbourside inspired by last year’s Olympic look and feel. And the Spirit of Portland, a series of events on the ancient isle
• The Ambassador Volunteers are now being coordinated by the Dorset Volunteer Centre, who plan to recruit  more ambassadors for event volunteering and for this summer to help the public around the seafront and town during the summer Sports festival from the 27 July until 4 August.
• A £150,000 activity centre, including outdoor gym equipment and a children’s play park, at Redlands Sport Centre 
• A total of 500 new deck chairs, each featuring an eye-catching individual design by Weymouth and Portland residents, have been created for Weymouth seafront      
• Improvements were made to the steps, gardens, footpaths and toilets of Weymouth’s Nothe Gardens. This work was paid for by LOCOG, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games
• A £450,000 grant from Sport England has been given to help promote Weymouth and Portland as a tourism destination for fun and challenging sports such as sailing, kayaking, cycling and climbing. The money, which came from Sport England’s Communities Fund and other sources, aims to build on the enthusiasm for these sports shown during the Olympic & Paralympic Games. This money will also help the ‘sail for a fiver’ which has helped people try sailing continue.    

Other benefits include:

• More people across Dorset have tried voluntary work thanks to the highly successful Weymouth and Portland Ambassador Programme. This has introduced many people to volunteering
• Improved CCTV and new digital radio systems. These will carry on improving communications and community safety at future events
• More housing. The athlete’s accommodation is now new housing for people on Portland. A quarter is affordable. This means nine new affordable family homes, with two or three bedrooms, have been created. They are all occupied     
• Dorset is now better prepared to cope with emergencies. Public sector staff have been trained to work together and provide a multi-agency response to any crisis.