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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
I regret that I cannot at this stage answer your question as to how long it will take to rebuild the Aberdeen market, as the ultimate uses of these allotted areas and the types of buildings to be constructed thereon will be matters for the Markets Select Committee to decide, taking into consideration the marketing needs and priorities of other districts. The only other point I wish to make is that market facilities in the form of fresh provision shops and a hawker bazaar are provided as a matter of course in all new resettlement estates. The population of 8,730 at Tin Wan Resettlement Estate in Aberdeen is so served.
MR. Lo:- Mr. Chairman, from your answer to my question, I take it that you agree that the existing market in Aberdeen is inadequate to serve the present day needs. Assuming that once the Markets Select Committee decides on the type of market to be built, how long will it take before it can be materialized?
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: - Mr. Chairman, it was about 5 years ago that Council requested very high priority be given to preparing working drawings for a market at North Point and a market somewhere at Kennedy Town. These markets have not been built yet because the Urban Council has been trying to make up its mind exactly what it wanted, and we have wasted many man-weeks on these two projects. If the same thing happens at Aberdeen it might be 10 years. If, on the other hand, we get on with the job and there are no changes of mind when the job is being designed, we might do it in much less.
DR. BELL: Mr. Chairman, would you tell me when the Urban Services Department building which is situated next to the market at Aberdeen was built?
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: - Do you mean the white two-storey one?
DR. BELL: - I mean the Urban Services Department building, I think, right next door to the market which I mentioned in one of my questions which were overruled because my friend Mr. K. S. Lo had put in a similar question (that is, No. 14)-the ramshackle market which is situated at Aberdeen.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: - There is a two-storey, white building next door to this ramshackle market. It is surrounded by stalls and was built, I think, in 1951 or 1952-in any case, in the early '50s.
DR. BELL: - Is it planned to re-build that along with the market?
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: - I have not yet seen any proposals of what the Urban Council wants on that.
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MR. CHEONG-LEEN: - Mr. Chairman, in regard to what has been said by the Honourable Director of Public Works, is he aware that since the new Tang Lung Chau Market was completed, Government has put a moratorium on the building of all new markets, pending an assessment on the success of the Tang Lung Chau Market?
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: - My impression, Sir, is that it is not the Government, it is the Urban Council.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN: If I am correct, my belief is that it is the Government. Could I also ask you, Mr. Chairman, whether this moratorium has been lifted?
MR. BERNACCHI: - I can confirm the belief of the Director of Public Works. It was this Urban Council.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN: - Thank you.
MR. WILFRED WONG: - Mr. Chairman, since the Market Committee was mentioned, I really wanted to make a statement on behalf of the Market Committee. But in order to conform with the standing order, I have to ask Mr. Lo a question through you. Is Mr. Lo aware that if he were to put his proposal to the Market Committee, of which he is a member, he would receive the assurance of the Market Committee's highest consideration?
DR. BELL: - Mr. Chairman, apparently it will possibly be 2 or 3 years before a new market is built at Aberdeen. Could you take steps to have something done about improving the roof of this market? If you stand on the second floor of the Urban Services Department building, which was built in 1952 apparently, and look down on the top of the market, you would be quite surprised at what has accumulated there.
CHAIRMAN: - An investigation will be carried out. (Laughter).
MR. SALES: - Sir, if there are no more supplementary questions, may I rise on a point of clarification. Did our colleague Dr. BELL suggest that you did not accept one of her questions because you favoured an earlier question by an Appointed Member?
DR. BELL: - Yes, in fact that was so.
MR. SALES: - Sir, in the circumstances, may I as the Senior Appointed Member make a statement that we are not so lacking in chivalry, Sir, to expect that you would ever give priority to our questions over any question put by any Lady Member of this Council regardless of whether she is an elected or an appointed member. May I have that made part of the record, Sir, that you used your own discretion in ruling out of order her question and it was not because an appointed member had put in the same or a similar question.
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