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I am not aware of any previous proposal for putting a swimming pool in Lai Chi Kok, but I could be wrong.
DR. BELL: Mr. Chairman, in view of the obvious need of swimming pools throughout the Urban areas, could this question and the supplementary I have asked, be referred to the Urban Amenities Select Committee for further discussion and the question of Lai Chi Kok and other areas for swimming pools and speeding up of production of swimming pools, because I notice that it is going to be 1968 before the next one is to be ready and that will only be the second one in Kowloon. I wonder just how many years ahead it will be before we get the third one, and I would like it to be put to the Urban Amenities Select Committee for speeding up.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: Mr. Chairman, may I answer the question on timing and on 1968. I do not want to make a statement but I would point out that in the Public Works Department we have become very much specialists in standardization, not only in resettlement, Government low-cost housing, standard schools, the annex schools to which Dr. BELL took exception last week, and public lavatories and bathhouses. For all of these we have got standard working drawings with which we can go out to tender and produce buildings very quickly once we have got the funds, and I remember 3-4 years ago discussing with Mr. NORTON this very same subject in connexion with swimming pools. We could easily get out standard drawings for swimming pools if only we could get the appropriate body to agree on the specifications and size and so on.
MRS. ELLIOTT: Mr. Chairman, speaking of swimming pools would it be out of order to ask the Director of Public Works, in view of the recent tragedy whether any check is being made on what we might call improvised swimming pools?
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: Mr. Chairman, I did look into that as soon as this incident occurred, and I discussed the possibility of fencing not only Hung Hom but all these reclamations. It is a very real problem because these are work sites, and they are dependent on hundreds of lorries coming along, dumping earth. The sea wall has to be built first and as they fill in behind the seawall you get these pockets of deep water. It seemed that it was not, in fact, really practical to fence it off without very serious slowing down of the process of reclamation and most of these reclamations are needed urgently, many of them for resettlement and other housing projects. But apart from that even if we did fence the entry to the reclamation area, I gather that the children are inclined to come along the seawall; they come in from each side and many of them use the seawall as they use Queen's Pier and other piers. So all I have been able to do, and I admit that it is not very much, is to give instructions that signs should be put at about 25 yard intervals along all these areas and saying 'No Swimming, Danger' in English and Chinese. I cannot at the moment think of any practical way to stop it, outside virtually stopping the filling.
MR. SALES: Is it not a fact, Sir, that the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club has offered to put up the money for the next swimming pool to be built by the Hong Kong Government?
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: Indeed, I think that is so, Sir. Funds are not stopping us getting along with Cheung Sha Wan, it is getting the sketch plans approved and I see from my notes here that the preliminary sketch plans are with the Urban Services Department. (Laughter).
MR. SALES: While we appreciate the answer that has been given by the Director of Public Works, may I ask whether it is not also a fact that the suggestion put forward by the Urban Amenities Select Committee for a standard layout plan for the construction of more utility type swimming pools in Hong Kong, has not met with enthusiastic response on the part of the Public Works Department.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: To my knowledge that is completely untrue, and I was down again this morning—I had a very busy morning this morning—looking at the drawings, and I found that the layout for the Kwun Tong playground, which includes a swimming pool had exactly the same size of swimming pool, exactly the same detail of changing-rooms as the Cheung Sha Wan one. Both were identical and making use of standard plans, and I was very pleased to see it. I then hear this answer given by the Chairman of the Urban Amenities Select Committee and I note that the Cheung Sha Wan pool is to be 20,000 square feet and the Kwun Tong one 30,000 square feet, so it looks as though our attempts at standardization will again be stopped.
MR. SALES: Sir, I am obliged to my colleague the Director of Public Works for his answer. May I ask you, Sir, to suggest that he gets in touch with his Deputy who is a member of the Urban Amenities Select Committee who said at the very last meeting that standard swimming pools were not easy to build in Hong Kong. I am speaking very slowly so that there need be no distraction this time on his part and that he may understand my supplementary question as well as I hope he does.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: Mr. Chairman, I have a note here from my Deputy Director who is a member of Mr. SALES' Committee, and it was Mr. NORTON and I who, 3 to 4 years ago, felt so strongly that if only we could get standardization we could get on with building
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