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The Official
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The Chairman of London 2012, Lord Sebastian COE, said on the day of the event, 'We said we would start work straight after the decision, and these were not empty words.' He continued, 'In the first six days after the decision, 17,000 people registered an interest in volunteering for the Games, with the total tally standing at nearly 60,000 people today.'
In order to show the speed with which London has begun its preparations, COE gave a few examples of concrete actions that London 2012 has taken since it was elected as the host city for the Games of the XXX Olympiad, 'Eight days after the decision, the Olympic Bill was introduced to Parliament. 20 days after the decision, the first lottery scratch cards were launched to fund the Games. Although it will take a few years before we see the actual venues, much work will be done preparing the site.'
The Mayor of London, Ken LIVINGSTONE, joined COE in giving concrete examples of the work that has been accomplished so far, 'I have already directed the London Development Agency and Transport for London to do everything necessary to ensure there are no delays in our planning and a contractor has now been selected to remove and reroute the power lines and pylons that cross the Olympic site.'
London was elected as the host city for the Games of the XXX Olympiad on 6 July 2005 at the 117th IOC Session in Singapore. London eventually succeeded in the fourth round of voting, obtaining 54 votes out of a possible 104. London faced stiff opposition during the vote from the other four candidate cities: Paris, New York, Moscow and Madrid.