It has given the job to London Eventing, a consortium made up of some of the most respected horse trials course builders in the UK, including Jonathan Clissold, Adrian Ditcham, Andrew Hunter and Scott Brickell, who have been told that they must respect Greenwich's status as a World Heritage Site and its position as one of Britian's best loved Parks.

 

 

Local residents are currently leading a campaign to have the venue scrapped and equestrian for London 2012 moved to Windsor Great Park because they fear it will cause long-term damage to Greenwich Park.

 

Between them the team at London Eventing are responsible for the cross country tracks at numerous British one day events, a selection of international competitions and one of the world’s leading four star courses at Burghley Horse Trials.

 

They will support the London 2012 equestrian manager Tim Hadaway and course designer Sue Benson by developing plans for and building the cross country courses for the test event in 2011 and the Olympics in 2012.

 

They will initially be advising Benson as she develops her jump designs and will support the organising committee in establishing a plan that will not only ensure the course in 2012 is of the highest standard but that it is developed respecting Greenwich’s status as a World Heritage Site and a much loved and used public Park.

 

Hadaway said: “We are very pleased with the appointment of London Eventing.

 

"We were in the privileged position of being able to consider a number of teams from the UK all of whom would be considered as being amongst the leading builders in the world.

 

"The team coming together as London Eventing to deliver the Olympic course has many years of experience delivering courses at every level in the UK and abroad including working as a team on the course at Burghley.”

 

Clissold, the project manager for London Eventing said: “We look forward to working with the London Organising Committee.

 

"This is a stunning venue and we can’t wait to develop a course that will showcase Greenwich and its unique heritage.

 

"Our team has a lot of much experience of developing courses in historic Parks including Burghley and Windsor Park and we will be looking to this as we work in this beautiful environment.”