The warning came from Sir Peter Rogers, the chief executive of the London Development Agency (LDA), the original owners of the land on which the Olympic Park in Stratford is being built before their responsibilities were transferred to the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) earlier this year.

The OPLC are now in charge of the legacy projects and making the site economically viable after the 2012 Games but Sir Peter predicted that it will take nearly a decade to be able to assess whether the organisation been successful in achieving their remit, he told the London Assembly at City Hall here today.

Sir Peter said: "The first measure [in judging the legacy of the Olympic and Paralympics] is to see if everybody enjoyed it in 2012.

"The second will be to see what happens in 2013 and then the real test will be to see what happens by 2020.

"This is not a short term gain and there will need to be visible improvements in the East End and throughout the area.

"I don’t just mean the Olympic Park, I mean the wider East End to show that regeneration is for real.

"If that happens, the Olympics would have been a catalyst for wide regeneration in the area and strangely enough, I’m confident that they will be.

"I regard this as a lifetime opportunity and if we don’t get it right this time, it will be a serious problem."

Sir Peter added that, although the project will take time, the success of the OPLC must be judge on how live improves for the residents living in and around the Olympic Park.

He said: "There is a public duty on the OPLC to deliver value on the investment in the Park and underpinning that, there should be jobs for local people in local businesses and it should be a much better place at the end of this to live and experience than it was before."

Although the LDA are no longer directly have any responsibility with the future of the Olympic Park and the organisations' future is actually uncertain due to Government funding cuts, Sir Peter said he envisions that his organisation will ensure that the OPLC delivers on it promises following London 2012.

He said: "One of the roles of the LDA will be to be a vociferous critic of the OPLC to make sure that the softer side of regeneration was achieved in terms of community benefit.

"But realistically the terms on which we have done this Olympic land transfer deal mean a clean break for the LDA [in terms of dealing with the legacy of the Olympic Park] and all LDA responsibilities are assumed by the OPLC.

"However, [Baroness] Margret Ford [the chair of the OPLC] knows exactly what she has taken on and exactly what she has to do."

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