What is the Lee Valley Regional Park?
The 26 mile-long park runs from from the River Thames to Ware in Hertfordshire, through areas such as Hackney, Tottenham, Enfield, Stratford, Tower Hamlets, Walthamstow, Cheshunt, Broxbourne and Hoddesdon.
Much of the southern half of the park has been developed to form the Olympic Park for the 2012 Olympics and the 2012 Paralympics.
It is run by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA), established through the Lee Valley Regional Park Act 1966, set up by the Government to help regenerate what was then one of the most deprived parts of England.
LVRPA receives over £12m in precept each year, in addition to other funding it receives.
In 2011-12 LVRPA expected to generate a further £6.5 million of revenue income.
After the Olympics it will own and four state-of-the-art London 2012 venues, Lee Valley White Water Centre, Lee Valley VeloPark and Lee Valley Tennis Centre and the Lee Valley Hockey Centre.
LVRPA has succeeded, it is now time to allow other regional parks to develop and similarly flourish.
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