WILL it be London or will it be Paris?

With the fate of the 2012 Olympics set to be decided on July 6 in Singapore, Herefordshire could well be a winner whichever of the two hot favourites is awarded the Games.

The county has, for the last several months, been touting itself as an ideal pre-event headquarters for either an Olympic or Paralympic squad in the build-up to the Games.

And either London or Paris would be within easy striking distance for a squad once the warm-ups are over, with no further acclimatisation necessary, whichever venue is chosen.

"We feel that Herefordshire can be an important part of the preparation," said Herefordshire Sports Council secretary Bryan White, adding, only half-jokingly: "Paris might even be better as the air-links are better than the road links to London."

Central to Hereford-shire's bid to host one of the smaller countries is the Royal National College for the Blind, who have warm-up facilities available for almost all the sports, either on site or within easy striking distance.

The Hereford college is able to make provision for acoustic shooting, basketball, boccia, fencing, football, goalball, judo, powerlifting, shooting, table tennis and volleyball, as well as accommodation and changing facilities.

Archery, athletics, cycling, rugby and swimming are all available locally while, now that plans for a new £1.5 million centre at Wharton Bank have been given the go-ahead, the Herefordshire Riding for the Disabled group could provide back-up for equestrian events.

The college have now developed a master plan for campus development to maintain and enhance their status as the UK's number one further education college for people with sight loss. This will have further beneficial spin-offs for the Olympic aim.

Over the next two years, the college will be seeking permission and funding to build a new sports and complementary therapies centre as well as additional accommodation facilities.

"It is proposed that the new developments will become a local, national and international centre of excellence," said RNC's sport and recreation programme co-ordinator Tony Larkin, who is also chairman of Herefordshire Sports Council.

"The college as a whole and, in particular, the sport and recreation and massage departments were recently described as 'outstanding' (grade 1) by Ofsted, the government office for standards in education.

"Using this expertise, the college will be able to provide sport, massage and accommodation facilities for the Games. We are very much looking forward to a positive and exciting few years ahead."