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floors, restaurants, and domestic flats when such valuable market sites such as Central and Western Markets are reprovisioned? Does he not also agree that the extra receipts from such a new development will more than off-set the aforementioned improvements?
THE CHAIRMAN replied as follows:-
The answer to the first question is that market design is currently under review by the Markets and Hawkers Select Committees and I will ensure, Sir, that their attention is drawn to your remarks on the possibility of installing air-conditioning and escalators in future projects. With regard to the second question, the present Central Market was built 26 years ago and I fear it is not possible to establish any useful relationship between present day market revenue, which is running at the rate of $570,000 per annum, and 1937 construction costs and land values. However, if a new market were to be built now on the present site, and if the full value of the land were to be charged to the project, then the potential revenue from market stalls could not possibly cover more than a small proportion of annual capital charges. Regarding the third question, I agree with the general proposition that valuable sites such as you mention can be more fully utilized by the addition of as many revenue earning upper floors as possible. However, it does not follow automatically that the extra receipts from this type of development would off-set the additional cost of improvements such as air-conditioning and escalators, and I do not think that it is possible to answer the last part of the question at all precisely without first making a special engineering and architectural study of the site in question.
MR. BERNACCHI :—I do not know if I am in order to add remarks to your answer to the first question, but speaking as Chairman of both the Markets and the Hawkers Select Committees we are inclined to think, although we have not yet arrived at any concrete conclusions, that even the installation of escalators and air-conditioning will not induce housewives to go to the first floor although, funnily enough, it might be possible to induce the housewife to go down to the basement. I do not know why that is, but going down and up is different from going up and down. (Laughter).
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, since the Central Market has been mentioned, would you care to put the suggestion to Government that when this market is rebuilt it will not be rebuilt as such, but as a multiple purpose building, in which there would be a market, a garage, a bathhouse of course, and also Urban Services Department offices. I think this has been discussed at one time but so far the suggestion has not gone any further. I think we could also include a community centre.
DR. LEE:-More relevant to the question, Mr. Chairman, is that in view of the large number of hawkers in the vicinity of our markets, does the Chairman not agree that the air-conditioning of markets is a valuable asset, since they are sited outside rather than inside the market?
CHAIRMAN:-Sir, I think air-conditioning is always a valuable asset, but this point is being considered now by these two Select Committees. I cannot say more at this stage.
DR. R. H. S. LEE asked the following question:
Is the Chairman aware that the official record of proceedings of this Council is not available at the City Hall Library and will he see that other missing official publications are also available to the public?
THE CHAIRMAN replied as follows:-
I was unaware, Sir, until you raised the matter that the official record of our proceedings was not available at the City Hall Library. Following your verbal request to the Secretary of the Council on 21st December, copies of Volumes II to VII of the Official Record of Proceedings of the Urban Council, covering the period from April 1957 to March 1963, have now been placed in the City Hall Library. There is no spare copy available of the first volume which covers the period from September 1955 to March 1957.
Arrangements have been made for future volumes of the Official Record to be deposited in the City Hall Library as soon as they have been published. Arrangements are also being made for other of our official publications to be deposited in the Library.
DR. LEE: Could not a stencilled copy be made of the missing first volume, Mr. Chairman?
CHAIRMAN:-It could, although I think it would involve a considerable amount of work. But at the moment the Secretary is, I
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