I know it’s already the middle of January but I want to wish you all a happy new year.

I hope you were able to experience the fantastic festive events at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

At the Legacy Corporation we’re excited for 2015 and its transformation milestones, particularly taking forward the enormous opportunities from the Olympicopolis investment. I’m sure you’ll have heard about this but you may be wondering what it means for Newham.

Olympicopolis is our biggest transformation project and will be delivered over the next seven years. When complete it will be a world class university and cultural district to bring together some of the best known organisations in the fields of art, dance, design, technology, teaching and research.

We have four world-class partners on board who are eager to move to the area. University College London will bring a major new university campus to the park and University of the Arts London plan to bring together all of their London College of Fashion activities in new purpose built premises. The Victoria and Albert Museum are planning a new museum and Sadler’s Wells will open a new 600 seat auditorium, hip hop academy and choreographic school.

My aim is for Olympicopolis to bring enormous benefits to Newham. It’s expected that an additional 1.5 million people will visit, contributing £2.8 billion to the economy with many opportunities for local businesses to benefit. When it’s complete, you will have access to some of the world’s best educational and cultural experiences but prior to that we will continue to work with organisations such as Workplace to ensure local people benefit from the estimated 3,000 jobs being created.

During the park’s transformation we exceeded industry standards for local people employed and I want to continue this. We’re still in the planning stages but have met with local arts, cultural and educational groups and will be holding consultations for residents. More from David Goldstone