First, he coordinates the City Operations programme, ensuring that London welcomes the world and runs smoothly in Games time. The once-in-a-lifetime experience in summer 2012 must extend out of the venues and into the streets of our city. The Mayor is leading this crucial work through a number of initiatives, including the Host City Volunteer programme he announced in 2009 where thousands of volunteers will be recruited to welcome our visitors during their stay in the capital.

But Londoners and visitors alike also have a right to expect that London's vital services meet the particular challenges created by the Games, and the Mayor is working closely with a wide range of agencies, including Transport for London, the Metropolitan Police and the capital’s local authorities, to make sure this happens.

The Mayor’s second vital role is to bring together the range of bodies working to capture a legacy from the Games for London and Londoners. The Mayor’s draft London Plan states that ‘successful, viable and sustainable regeneration of the Olympic Park and surrounding areas is the Mayor’s highest regeneration priority’.

He is already working with the new Olympic Park Legacy Company, of which he is a founder member and 50% shareholder, to prepare the best possible plans for the Park and its new permanent venues after the Games – including for a world-class higher education facility.

And, with the five east London host boroughs, he is committed to taking every opportunity presented by the Games to make real the principle of convergence, to transform one of the poorest areas in Europe by making sure that people in the five host boroughs enjoy the same social and economic opportunities as their neighbours across the rest of London.

But the legacy of the Games must also be felt across the whole capital. The Mayor is working hard to stimulate and sustain increases in volunteering and sport participation throughout London, and to use the unique appeal of the Games as a stimulus for education in schools, colleges and communities.

Through his London Development Agency, he is also ensuring that people and businesses from every corner of the capital have access to the employment, training and business opportunities arising from the Games.

Neale Coleman is the Mayor’s Adviser on London 2012. More information about the Mayor of London and his role in the Games is available at www.london.gov.uk.