....5
i) The Antiquity Monuments Board in Hong Kong recommended
the retention of the KCR building until they were influenced by the Government to the affect that it was not feasible.
ii)
iii)
iv)
v)
vi)
vii)
viii)
ix)
x)
xi)
The Heung Yee Kuk (the New Territories rural association's leadership) has appealled to the Government for preservation of the building.
The Tsim Sha Tsui neighbourhood association appealled to the Governor for the building's preservation.
The Royal Town Planning Institute, Hong Kong Branch, fully supports the Hong Kong Heritage Society's campaign on the KCR building and planning of the Tsim Sha Tsui Peninsula (N.B. out of their total membership of thirty-six, thirty are civil servants).
The Hong Kong Institute of Architects supports the Heritage Society's case.
A number of overseas experts have expressed their support for the Society's case for preservation of the building on grounds of historic and architectural merit. Many architects in the Public Works Department of the Hong Kong Government though they are constrained in their official positions from expressing their true views, privately support the Heritage Society's campaign.
A plan integrating the old building with the proposed new Cultural Complex was never invited by the Urban Council. The Council, which uncritically accepted the first and only vague scheme presented for the Cultural Complex, can claim no popular mandate.
No comparative costings of the Cultural Complex with or without the old building integrated in it have been prepared or published.
The administration claimed that the plans for the new Cultural Complex were 'advanced' on several occasions when it is known to Your Petitioners that only sketch plans existed.
Since the existing official scheme was conceived many new factors have arisen which call for a rethinking of the whole Tsim Sha Tsui area. (e.g. One factory is the replacement of the aforesaid rail-link which was erroneously removed)
Neither the Director of Transport of the Hong Kong Government, nor the Town Planning Department of the Public Works Department were consulted on the Heritage Society's Petition to His Excellency the Governor last summer.
.....to be cont'd.....