Olympic minister sends plans "back to the drawing board" for being over-budget.
Olympics minister Tessa Jowell has rejected Zaha Hadid鈥檚 designs for the aquatic centre for the 2012 Games, fearing that it would cost double the project鈥檚 budget of 拢75m.
"I have had to send the designers of the Olympic aquatics centre back to the drawing board because a change in the specification had almost doubled costs, which is simply unacceptable," she said in a speech to the Thames Gateway Forum.
Construction of the centre, which was designed to house two 50m pools and a separate 25m diving pool, and accommodate 20,000 spectators, has already begun. Plans will now be scaled back.
The government expects that other venues will encounter similar problems with potential overspend, and will hope that this decisive action will send a signal to architects that budgets must be stuck to. Jowell has pledged that there will be no extra burden on either central funds, or London council-tax payers.
