Jack Lemley, (L) Colin Moynihan, (2nd L) Tessa Jowell, (3rd L) Ken Livingstone, (3rd R) Seb Coe (2nd R) and Jackie Brock-Doyle (R) attend a London 2012 Olympic Committee press conference in April
© AFP/File Ben Stansall

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - "I went there to build things, not to sit and talk about it ... So I felt it best to leave the post and come home," Lemley, 71, said in an interview the Idaho Statesman daily published Tuesday in his home town of Boise.

He said the projects were at risk of running over budget and not meeting deadlines for completion.

The US businessman, who ran the Anglo-French group that designed and built the Channel Tunnel, quit his post as head of the body responsible for delivering the venues and infrastructure for the London Olympic Games on October 18, less than a year after being appointed on a four-year contract for the job.

At the time, he said pressing business at his international construction consulting firm called him back home. Sir Roy McNulty, chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority, was made the acting chairman of the ODA in his place.

In his interview, Lemley said squabbles kept interfering with the projects in London.

He cited local politicians near the site of an 80,000-seat athletic stadium who after the Games wanted to turn the site into a football stadium. "A football field is not compatible with an athletic stadium," he said, adding that the building of the stadium is still being debated.

A 283-hectare (700-acre) site outside London set aside for Olympic facilities, he added, was involved with "a huge amount of local politics" as some of the 300 businesses there were reluctant to move.

"Those are the kind of things that confuse and frustrate the process," Lemley said.

Rather than ruin his reputation of being able to deliver projects on time and on budget, "I felt it was better to come home now than face that in five or six years."

Any regrets about his decision?

"I miss working on the project, but I don't have a rearview mirror. When I make a decision like that, I never look back."

©AFP