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The LLDC's David Goldstone says that legal challenges made by West Ham have cost the Olympic Park operators a small fortune to defend.

Goldstone, who was appearing in front of the London Assembly revealed that the Corporation's legal costs had reached an astonishing £3.5million since 2013 - all, according to the Chief Executive, as a result of challenges from West Ham pertaining to the stadium.

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"We have had some recent legal challenges since the stadium became fully operational with West Ham moving in and weve had issues where we've had strong legal advice saying we should defend E20's rights and entitlements under the concessions agrement," said Goldstone.

"I should stress that we seek negotiated agreements where we can and there are a number of issues on which we've reached a negiotiated settlement that satisfied us that we were getting value from our agreements with Wets Ham.

"I can confirm that all the legal proceedings we've been involved in have been insitgated by West Ham - and in all of them we've been the defendent protecting our interests, we haven't instigated any of them."

Goldstone, who faced questions from the Asssembly for nearly two hours this morning also confirmed that the Corporation could not state when they expected the loss-making stadium to become self-sustaining. A mayoral review regarding the funding and operation of it is currently being undertaken.

However one of the avenues the LLDC are preparing to exploit in order to claw back some of their lost revenue is to reduce match day staffing costs at the stadium, according to the Chief Executive.

"On match days we're looking at reducing the cost of stewarding - managing crowd movement is a significant challenge," he added. "We're looking at simplyfying those egress routes and providing less interface with the crowds coming out of Westfield.

"We're looking at all the contracts and agreements in place to make sure we can maximise the benfit for further revenue and minimising costs."

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