On your marks... London 2012 Olympic Games horror stories

IF SCAREMONGERING was an Olympic sport then Britain would surely win a gold medal. With the countdown to the London Games well under way, the media is revelling in the chaos and mayhem that the event will apparently cause in the capital this summer...

Traffic meltdown. The latest scare story comes from transport minister Norman Baker. According to MSN he believes that "London's road and rail networks will melt down during the Olympics unless commuters stay away".

He said that the only way to avoid transport chaos was for people who work in London to abandon the city for the duration of the Games and work from home instead.

Lib Dem Baker also blamed the Olympic organisers for the least popular transport initiative associated with the Games - "Olympic only" traffic routes for athletes, official and VIPs. The idea has infuriated Londoners who face increased congestion during the Games as a result.

Plasma alert. Martin Schultz of delviery company TNT this week outlined his transport fears for the Olympics. He said the special routes around London and increased traffic could harm his business and even put lives at risk.
 
He told the BBC: "We have a national contract... to deliver blood plasma which involves us in picking up consignments from a hospital or a blood bank and safely delivering it to hospitals. If such deliveries are late it could put a transplant at risk."
 
Blood donations down. In a similar vein, no pun intended, The Sun reported at the end of last year that the Olympics could actually lead to a fall in blood donations in the first place, meaning that TNT would have nothing to transport anyway.
 
"The NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) unit have warned of a 'perfect storm' created by a packed sporting calendar and extra Bank Holidays," warned the paper. "2011 showed what can happen, donations slumped by thousands during the Easter and Royal Wedding holidays. That could happen again with London expecting 4 million visitors for the Olympics."
 
Exotic diseases. Doctors have also raised concerns about the possibility of a public health emergency during the Games. Apparently, the thousands of visitors and athletes from around the world who descend on London will not only clog up the transport system, they will infect locals with exotic diseases. They also bring with them the danger of stampede.
 
As Prof Ziad Memish of Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health warned this week: "Conventional concepts of disease and crowd control do not adequately address the complexity of mass gatherings." He said that the risks included: "catastrophic stampedes, collapse of venues, crowd violence and damage to political and commercial infrastructure."
 
Heathrow alarm. One of the more terrifying claims came from The Daily Telegraph. It told shocked readers this week that Heathrow had been forced to "introduce new security measures" to deal with the "flood" of firearms that would pour into the country during the Olympic year.
 
Fortunately, it turns out this is not down to gangsters, but because of the shooting events at the Games. "Heathrow's Olympic planning documents show that 390 athletes will bring 780 firearms for the Olympics and 140 athletes with 20 firearms will arrive for the Paralympics," explained the paper, adding that it means a lot more paperwork for customs.

Big Chill silenced. Want to get away from all the hoop-la surrounding the Olympics and enjoy a music festival? Well, you can't. At least not in Herefordshire. The organisers of the Big Chill festival at Eastnor Castle have cancelled this year's event, due to take place in August, because they couldn't persuade any bands to turn up and play.
 
Organiser Melvin Benn wrote on the festival's website: "I looked long and hard late last year at moving the date so it didn't clash with the Olympics but... I plumped for maintaining the existing weekend. Sadly, the artist availability and confirmations we were achieving led me to conclude that I couldn’t risk going ahead with the event."
 
Glasto cancelled. Glastonbury is also having a year off in 2012, because of the Olympics. Way back in 2010 The Guardian reported that Michael Eavis made the decision not to run a festival based on the cost of loos. "The Olympics meant 2012 would be a toilet-supplier's dream year and prices would inevitably be pushed up," reported the paper.
 
Avon & Somerset police also warned him that the 600 officers that usually police Glastonbury would be spending the summer in London, beefing up security ahead of the Games. ·