Page 44 of 245
Page 44 of 243
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MR. SALES: Mr. Chairman, that has not been overlooked. If the matter is to be brought up again before the Select Committee, which I suggest that Mr. Hu might wish to do at the next meeting, there is of course danger that the rest of the programme may not be kept to the present schedule because this site is not easy of development as Mr. Henry Hu knows. We have considered it already when the Kaifong suggested the area adjoining the polyclinic.
MR. HU: I think, Mr. Chairman, that Mr. SALES does not understand. This upper playground, the playground only occupies two-thirds of this vacant space, another one-third is for sitting area, what I would like to say is that could the playground be included in that one-third sitting area?
MR. SALES: But Mr. Chairman, I might point out to Mr. Hu that I visited this estate together with him at the time when the playgrounds were opened and this matter was already pointed out to us, but the department rightly, with my support, decided that the sitting out area had to be kept for residents of the estate who are not normally active in the sports to which Mr. Hu has referred. They should also be given the opportunity for rest and recreation in their own way.
MR. HU: Could that matter be discussed in the Select Committee again?
MR. SALES: I should be very happy to do that.
MR. HU: Thank you.
MR. BERNACCHI: I'd like to ask either Mr. SALES or the Commissioner for Resettlement whether the figure of 29,000 is 29,000 persons or 29,000 adults?
MR. SALES: Total population, Sir.
MR. BERNACCHI: And the other supplementary concerns the Aberdeen Sports Ground. What P.W.D. category is it in?
MR. SALES: Sir, I am not aware of the category at the moment off hand, but I believe it is now in point of fact about to be developed. As a matter of fact, the plans were approved not only by the Select Committee but by Standing Committee of the Whole Council at the time this was put on the table.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
(9) MR. HENRY H. L. HU asked the following question:
Mr. Chairman, during the disturbances last year, a lot of the inflammatory slogans were written on walls, later obliterated with black or white paint, what is the Council, through the U.S.D., doing now to clean these walls entirely?
THE CHAIRMAN, URBAN COUNCIL, replied as follows:
This question concerns the removal of inflammatory slogans from walls.
As far as the walls of U.S.D. premises are concerned, slogans have long since been removed or obliterated, although there are a handful of cases where it is proving difficult to remove the last vestiges. If I am correct in assuming that Mr. Hu is now referring to slogans on walls of premises not under the control of the U.S.D., then the answer is that the Department is doing nothing to remove them. It is the business of private owners to look after their own walls, and the same applies to premises controlled by other Government departments.
MR. HU: Mr. Chairman, what is the position of roads in the urban area? The slogans painted on the road will that...
CHAIRMAN: We don't control roads.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: Mr. Chairman, with due respect, this answer is not entirely correct because Public Works Department and not the Government departments are concerned with the Government buildings and we are in fact going through all the Government buildings removing slogans and in only very very few cases are slogans still on buildings. Government is studying the best way of removing these slogans without damaging the marble or the granite or whatever it is they've been painted on. We also have been removing them from roads. If they are on roads I would like to know where they are so that we can follow that up.
MR. HU: They are in Bowen Road.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: Which road?
MR. HU: Bowen Road.
MR. BERNACCHI: The oral answer is slightly different from the written answer in that you added in regard to the Urban Services Department premises walls "removed or obliterated". By "obliterated" do you mean, Sir, scratched out in white or black paint?
70
71
La 11
243