Council to pay for torchbearers to keep their Olympic torch
Waltham Forest Council has announced it will pay the £199 charge for any of its residents running as an Olympic torchbearer.
The authority made the decision following Locog's announcement that anyone taking part in the Torch Relay will have to pay to keep their torch as a memento after taking part.
Leader of Waltham Forest Council, Chris Robbins, said:
“To be honest it seems a bit rich to expect residents of an Olympic Host Borough to fork out so much money, especially when they’ve done some amazing things and got some very special stories to tell."
“Being a part of the Olympic Games is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.We hope that this gesture will be picked up by other London boroughs so that all of the capital’s torchbearers will be left with a brilliant memento from London 2012.”
