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(b)
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Rules relating to court bookings, in particular courts at Victoria Park and Bowen Road, in order to ensure a fair usage of the courts by the general public.
MR. KENNETH T. C. Lo, CHAIRMAN OF THE RECREATION AND AMENITIES SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in English):
Mr. Chairman, a site of 1.1 acres adjacent to the new Hong Kong Cricket Club site off Wong Nai Chung Gap Road is scheduled for development as public tennis courts with floodlighting, dressing rooms and toilet facilities. Three courts will be provided initially, and the rest of the site will be occupied by the ancillary buildings, a garden and parking space. The facilities will be laid out in such a way that more tennis courts can be built at a later date should the need arise. The feasibility of using artificial grass as the surfacing material for the tennis courts is being looked into by a special committee of the Hong Kong Lawn Tennis Association, but no report has yet been received from the committee.
These are the only specific plans at present to provide additional public tennis courts. Tennis is still a minority sport in Hong Kong. In view of the need to cater more for the majority of the population by the provision of other games facilities on the limited area of open space made available to the Council, I consider it will be necessary for me to seek guidance from the Recreation and Amenities Select Committee on the scale of provision for tennis before any large scale plan is developed for the building of more courts.
With regard to the problem of booking courts the Urban Council is very concerned that the existing limited facilities should not be denied unreasonably to members of the public. Block booking of courts by schools or similar non-commercial organizations is only permitted at the Victoria Park Tennis Courts where no more than six courts may be allocated on any one school day, and then only between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. when the courts are not generally in full demand. No other block bookings are permitted, and even the Hong Kong Lawn Tennis Association has to obtain Urban Council approval before its application to hold a competition is authorized.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Tennis courts may be booked three days in advance by telephone. No person may book more than one court at a time and then for only one hour. Any advance booking not taken up within 5 minutes of the hour reserved is cancelled, and the court is then available for re-allocation to any player who is there waiting.
Courts not booked in advance by telephone can be booked up to two days in advance by personal application at the office on the grounds. The same restrictions apply. Courts still unbooked may be allocated to any player coming to the ground on the chance of finding a court available. With the increasing popularity of tennis, particularly at week-ends and outside office hours, and the limited number of courts available, it is rare for any tennis court to be available during these periods.
Although checks have been made to see that the rules are being enforced, it has been ascertained that, even within the rules, certain people have been able to get more than their fair share of the use of the courts. This is a regular source of complaint by members of the public and is against the policy of the Council which is clearly aimed at making those public facilities available to the public generally, in as fair and as equitable a way as possible.
It has therefore been decided to enact a by-law which will allow the Urban Council to deny the use of the tennis courts to players who, by whatever means, have managed to book tennis courts for more than one hour in any one day and to remove them from the courts when they have been seen to have played once already.
I hope that these measures will eliminate what has been up to now a source of irritation and frustration to the public generally and to the Council, and that the by-law will be made in as short a time as possible.
(5) MISS CECILIA L. Y. YEUNG asked the following question (in Cantonese):
I am referring to the beach which is right beside the entrance to Shek O village.
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