LORD Sebastian Coe has dismissed a council leader’s fears that the Olympic Games will soak up vital skills and resources from Kent.

Cllr Paul Carter, leader of Kent County Council, voiced his concerns at a Kent Institute of Directors breakfast at Brands Hatch.

Demands against tight Olympic deadlines could be bad news for the county’s own growth programme in the Thames Gateway and Ashford, he warned.

In particular, Cllr Carter is worried that construction skills may be sucked out of Kent’s own regeneration projects to work on Olympic venues and participant villages.

"Everybody talks very optimistically about the Olympics in 2012 and what great opportunities it brings for us in Kent and the South East," he said.

"But I’m not so sure. Obviously this is going to soak up a significant amounts of public resource into the Stratford area and I’m really concerned that much of that money could otherwise be going into the Thames Gateway, into Kent."

But speaking at the Ramada Hotel, Lord Coe said organisers should make sure that skills were not sucked out of existing projects.

"We have six and a half years to be able to structure this properly," he said.