Starkey: Riding events will destroy Greenwich

THE royal park at Greenwich will be ruined if Olympics organisers stage the 2012 equestrian competitions there, the historian David Starkey claimed today.

The author and broadcaster also warned of damage to the rest of Maritime Greenwich, which is designated by the United Nations as a world heritage site, because of the volume of people who would pour into the area to watch the Games.

A decision to use the area has attracted fierce local opposition. Opponents argue that the site is too small and that serious damage to the park's historic trees and landscape will be inevitable, while others are angry that a third of the park will be closed for 10 months to prepare for the events.

Olympics organisers claim they will be able to protect the park and restore it to its original condition once the Games are over.

Dr Starkey believes the park, created by Henry VIII, is a "unique and fragile" landscape which would suffer irreparable harm.