In My View: Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, MP for Tooting Wandsworth Council

In recent weeks, it’s safe to say the nation has been gripped by sport. First, we had the excitement of the Euros. Now, all eyes are firmly on Tokyo 2020.

It’s a timely reminder of the London 2012 legacy – a year which saw us rally behind our nation’s athletes, cheering them on as they represented the very best of Britain on the global stage.

Here in Tooting, the community are having to pull together in a bid to safeguard this legacy. After years of council neglect, Tooting Bec Athletics Track has failed a vital inspection and cannot be used for training or competitions beyond autumn 2021.

Tooting Bec Athletics Track is much-loved and well-utilised by residents and the wider South London community.

In fact, more than 80,000 people – roughly four times the national average – use this track in a typical year, including schools and clubs such as the Herne Hill Harriers.

To lose such a valuable community asset will be a devastating blow to so many of our young people.

Top British Athletes are made at Tooting Bec Athletics Track too: Double Olympian Jade Johnson started out here before going on to represent Great Britain. This year’s Team GB Olympic competitor, Katie Green, still trains at this very track.

By letting the track fall into disrepair, Wandsworth council are destroying the London 2012 legacy – and seriously damaging the chances of our next generation of Olympic hopefuls.

I think we can all agree that closures make a sport like athletics much harder for people from ordinary backgrounds to break into.

If our young people don’t have safe places nearby to train, they won’t, and simply can’t, get involved in the sport.

This is deeply concerning. There is so much talent here in South London, and I do not want to see that go to waste.

Without a commitment to fund the resurfacing of Tooting Bec Athletics Track, Wandsworth council are putting the London 2012 legacy firmly at risk.

I am urging them to secure its future, and that of the young people who train here, without delay.

Our young people deserve to have options and opportunity – not barriers from unnecessary budget cuts.