Over the next three years the Council is planning to complete a range of regeneration projects which will see its sports facilities improved, the West End revamped and more housing available for its residents.

Colin Barrow, the Leader of Westminster Council, said: "In the run up to the Olympics we are resolute in our determination to ensure that we work even harder for the residents and businesses we serve in the city through our unrelenting commitment to projects which will give Londoners a lasting legacy.

"We want to make Westminster somewhere everyone can be proud of and enjoy visiting.

"Our spending plans reflect the needs of our residents and will make sure they are well looked after as well as ensuring that come 2012 our capital captures the world's attention and should ensure visitors are as impressed by the city's streets and all they have to offer, as they are with the sporting talent many will have travelled so far to see."

As part of the plans more than £80 million ($122 million) will be invested in West End projects which should transform the world famous shopping district and ensure it copes with the influx of extra people who will come to it in 2012.

The Council is already working on a number of projects with partners from the public and private sector.

These include revamping Marble Arch, making Oxford Circus an easier place to walk around, cleaning up Soho, putting the sparkle back into Theatreland, modernising Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus and making Chinatown.

More than £6 million ($9 million) will be spent on improving the city's sport faculties and will include a brand new Westminster Children's Sport Centre at Little Venice, a gym extension and a brand new diving pit at the Queen Mother sports centre, as well as the opening of a state of the art Leisure Centre in Marshall Street in Soho

The Council is also spending £88 million ($134 million) improving the Council's housing and work has already begun on the largest affordable housing programme by a local authority in the capital since the 1970s, which will see up to 500 homes built over four years in a bid to help meet surging demand for affordable housing and tackle overcrowding.


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April 2009: Oxford Circus to get revamp for 2012