BUSINESSMEN who are setting up a campsite for visitors to next year’s Olympics have slammed the lack of support for the venture.

The site is being set up at The Old Foresters Club near Theydon Bois station for 28 days over next year’s Games and about 50 of the 150 pitches have been sold already.

Phil Newman, one of the campsite’s owners, said visitors would provide an essential boost to the area’s economy.

But he has faced opposition from the residents’ association the Theydon Bois Action Group and has now been ordered to remove the 2012 logo from the website.

“The Olympics told us to take (the logo) off, after they got a phone call from the action group,” he said. “What are the businesses in the area going to get from the Olympics?

“Say I have 250 customers overall – where are they going to eat and drink? They’re going to go to local businesses.

“The Olympics is the biggest thing that’s going to happen to this country for I don’t know how long. There’s a sour attitude to it.”

Terry Farr, who runs The Elms Camping and Caravan Park in Lippitts Hill, High Beech, and plans to handle most of the bookings for the Theydon Bois campsite, said: “You can have the logo if you pay for it. It’s purely a commercial thing.

“More should be done to embrace people coming to the area, especially in Theydon Bois.

“It will be a nice little boost for the economy.”

He said the static caravans at his own campsite had been booked up within hours of him advertising them for the Olympic period and the rest of the site was filling up quickly, with people from as far away as New Zealand planning to stay.

Plans for another temporary campsite, at Netherhouse Farm, near Waltham Abbey, have been lodged with the council.

The applicants have not said how many pitches the site would hold.

A spokesman for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games said he could not comment on individual cases.

But he said the organisation had a duty to monitor the use of the 2012 logo and protect the Olympic ‘brand’.

“The Olympic symbol is one of the most recognisable and valuable brands in the world,” he added. “We have obligations to the International Olympic Committee to maintain this value and prevent unauthorised exploitation.”

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