3.
4
para.2 - (The Heritage Society's counter
with ref. to 2 (iii) by F. & C.O. representative.
5
3.
It is still NOT too late to reconsider the situation. A copy of a letter from the PWD was handed to F. & C.0. representative. (The letter is an answer to Vivian Slack on behalf of Heritage). In this it states that the bulk of the Cultural Centre is presently in Category 'B' and its regrading to Category 'A' is to besought presumably in the present Financial Review'. This means that funds will be made available for technical development of the design as from June/July, 1978.
The design is currently in Category 'B', that is at concept stage plus budget assessment.
It means that the BRIEF has been accurately established within minor variations. It means that the architects have a thorough knowledge of all the parameters relating to every element and it means as a consequence that it is a VERY EASY time to recast the design to accord with basic decisions which affect the site EXTERNALLY.
This should be possible in a very short period of time,
say 2 months rather than 2 years.
Knowing the speed of Government decisions it might take another 6 months to gain the agreement of all other departments whose involvement is implied by the PLAN which we tabled. I would suggest the speed is something which is related to a willingness to consider the matter in the way we propose.
?
IT IS ALSO AN IDEAL TIME TO FRAME CONDITIONS AND HOLD AN ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITION FOR THE "COMPLEX" including in the parameter THE RETENTION, CONSERVATION and RE-USE of the K.C.R. TERMINAL.
Bearing in mind the present (Govt.) Architectural Office civic load in the P.W.D., why not do this?
The F. & C. 0. representative seemed to feel that our Petition was merely a matter of saving K.C.R. railway station building.
It should be strongly pointed out that if the 3 points which he assumes we stand for, listed under para. 2 above, are considered viable as far as (ii) and (iii) are concerned, then (i) is a direct ILLUSTRATION OF PRINCIPLE WHICH GOVERNMENT COULD USE to show that it does listen to what the people of Hong Kọng think.
At the moment we believe that this Government by CONSENSUS is a farce and a pretense that Government do not want to do more than listen, and appear to be interested.
INVOLVEMENT in this discussion CANNOT be effective as long as Government retain all basic facts as close to their chests as possible. Involvement means shared knowledge.