I AM the heavy throws coach (hammer, shot and discus) for Enfield and Haringey Athletics Club at the Queen Elizabeth stadium.

I read in the your paper of the idea of using North Weald for the World Championships Stadium. I'm afraid that this idea has less chance than the Picketts Lock debacle and as far as most people were concerned, that was never on anyway!

Where is the route for the marathon going to be? It is all very well to close down a few streets in a city for a while, but in an emergency an ambulance can still get near to a site.

Close the roads around North Weald and there would either be no access for miles, or, even worse, an ambulance tearing down a narrow country road, bearing down on 100 runners.

Also, where are the spectators going to be sited or parked?

One idea for Picketts Lock was for Enfield and Haringey to use the stadium as their home track, training there as well. This was a bit fanciful, as many of the youngsters would be unable to get to Picketts Lock, while they can get to the present two stadia in use by foot, bike or bus.

You would not find a top club to use North Weald regularly. This would result in no-one being on site most of the time, which would result in an ideal play area for the vandals, or wardens being paid to protect a site in use only three or four times a year.

The other possibility is that Spurs would take over the stadium as their groundas they were rumoured to have requested for Picketts Lock, and the nation would still not have an athletics stadium plus yet more Lottery cash poured into football.

Travel facilities are even worse than Picketts Lock. The Tube does go out to Epping and Ongar, but those stations are some way away. The local roads are not exactly welcoming to several thousand visitors can you imagine what Epping High Street would be like on an athletics grand prix night? There are very few local buses as well.

The final straw would be a local farmer muck-spreading at the time of the marathon it could smell as bad as the environs of Picketts Lock, believe it or not!

The space is ideal, but the siting is not, I'm afraid.

RICHARD TURNER (Richardwturner1@aol.com)I AM the heavy throws coach (hammer, shot and discus) for Enfield and Haringey Athletic Club at the Queen Elizabeth stadium.

I read in your paper of the idea of using North Weald for the World Championships Stadium. I'm afraid that this idea has less chance than the Picketts Lock debacle and as far as most people were concerned, that was never on anyway.

Where is the route for the marathon going to be?

Close the roads around North Weald and there would either be no access for miles, or, even worse, an ambulance tearing down a narrow country road, bearing down on 100 runners.

Also, where are the spectators going to be sited or parked?

And travel facilities are even worse than Picketts Lock.he Tube does go out to Epping and Ongar, but those stations are some way away. The local roads are not exactly welcoming to several thousand visitors can you imagine what Epping High Street would be like on an athletics grand prix night? There are very few local buses as well.

The final straw would be a local farmer muck-spreading at the time of the marathon it could smell as bad as the environs of Picketts Lock, believe it or not!

The space is ideal, but the siting is not, I'm afraid.

RICHARD TURNER (Richardwturner1@aol.com)

October 24, 2001 8:40