Olympics aquatics centre costs now estimated to triple

In November 2007 it was admitted that costs for the 2012 London Olympics swimming pool block, the so-called aquatics centre, were likely to double.

We should be so lucky. Two months on and the cost overruns have been estimated up again.

Now it is admitted the Olympics aquatics centre is likely to cost nearly three times as much as the £75 million originally estimated.

Tessa Jowell still has some responsibility for the fiasco although she has been kicked onto the back benches in parliament. She told the architects to chop the project down to size - so this is the cheap version we're getting now.

After all the chaos last year Eiffel and Hochtief decided not to get involved in the looming disaster and declined to bid. That only left Balfour Beatty who can now name their price as they are the only company left willing to put up the block.

The aquatics centre is now due to be finished in 2011, that's two years later than planned originally, and of course not the all singing and dancing building originally envisaged.