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agreement had been obtained to the Farrell design would be for a brief refinement meeting involving key departments in London. This would produce detailed recommendations followed by a full appraisal by the OED design team of the implications of the current brief plus revision of Farrell's outline design, for subsequent discussion with the architects, who would then produce revised design plans which will be cleared with BTC and the Steering Committee. The question of objectives for the BTC will be a matter for separate discussion with HKD, which will ensure that these were taken fully into account in the work of the Steering Committee.
Paragraph 4b: concerns
i
if Farrells are chosen, how the views of BTC and other interested parties in Hong Kong would be fed in. As noted above, SBTC would be responsible for co-ordination of views among the British missions in Hong Kong. These would be fed into the Steering Committee. The question of co-ordination in Hong Kong is covered in more detail in BTC's telno 200. On these points, we agreed that Mr Day should convene as necessary an ad-hoc Co-ordinating Committee involving representatives from UKREP JLG, and from the Political Advisers Office. We will draft suggested terms of reference in consultation with BTC (action: Mr Morris and OED);
ii the Steering Committee will give full weight to the objectives and requirements of the BTC in further development of the chosen design;
There was
iii detailed questions on the Farrell proposals. full discussion of the problem of access to the building. OED clarified that the present Farrell designs envisaged completely separate entrances for a) the British Council b) passport/immigration/consular service and c) VIP visitors to the building/staff. Mr Day asked whether it was intended
further to distinguish between i) British subjects seeking consular protection and ii) local Hong Kong people requiring passport/immigration services. He understood that these groups were separated out both in some British missions elsewhere in the world, and in the re-designed US Consulate-General in Hong Kong. OED said that there was no policy of differentiating between these different streams of members of the public. HKD commented that many of those seeking immigration/passport services would themselves be British nationals, albeit without right of abode in the UK. OED added that in times of tension, the Farrell design should enable crowds or mobs to be kept outside the perimeter of the building. It was agreed that more thought should be given to developing the separate access to the building under the staff accommodation as an alternative means of entry and exit if the front of the building was blocked by crowds. agreed to produce a more detailed note on the question of access to the building, including the various categories of visitors to the Consulate-General, as a basis for further discussion with the architects (action: Mr Morris and OED).
We
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