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# HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
## ADDRESS BY CHAIRMAN
CHAIRMAN (in English):-Ladies and Gentlemen, the meeting is called to order. The debate on the Statement of Aims for 1988–89 which is adjourned from Tuesday, the 12th of January will now resume. I now call on the first speaker, Mr. Samuel WONG.
MR. SAMUEL P. W. WONG (in English):-The Recreation Select Committee of the Urban Council is primarily concerned with the promotion of recreation and sporting interests among the urban population and with the development of facilities to suit the general public. The opening of the magnificent Kowloon Bay and Sham Shui Po sportgrounds in September 1987 was particularly noteworthy, in a year which has also seen the completion of 9 Indoor Games Halls, a dedicated badminton centre at the Choi Hung Road Indoor Games Hall and 32 air-conditioned squash courts.
The 1987 swimming season saw a trial of coin operated turnstiles and coin return lockers being conducted at selected swimming pool complexes. The trial proved to be a great success and the intention is that lockers and turnstiles will be installed at all swimming pool complexes over the next two years. The feasibility of developing a new type of leisure swimming pool complex has also been studied, and plans are well in hand for the development of a prototype leisure pool on a site at Hammer Hill.
In September 1987, the barracks site at Lei Yue Mun was handed over to the Council. Planning for the use of the site in the short term as a park cum holiday village started immediately, and the first phase of the development was opened for use in December 1987. $20 million has been allocated for the short term development of the park.
Redevelopment of Kowloon Park funded and constructed by the Jockey Club on behalf of the Council is now well underway. The first of the new facilities to be completed, the football pitch, was opened for public use in November 1987. Detailed plans for the new Hong Kong Park have also been finalized and work on site will start in August this year.
Looking ahead, physical development of the area currently occupied by the Kowloon Walled City will begin in 1990. Development of this site will be funded by government.
In support of the World Environment Day, tree planting ceremonies were organized in each urban district. A total of 15,300 trees and 84,600 shrubs have been planted as part of the Council's annual planting programme.
For the year 1988-89, the estimated expenditure under the auspices of the Recreation Select Committee is $402.5 million. This represents roughly 20% increase on the outturn forecast for the current year. Of the nearly $402.5M estimated expenditure, nearly 70% is for personal emoluments; 20% for operational expenditure and the rest is for special expenditure. The estimated revenue for the year 1988-89 is roughly $80 million. In other words, this Council will be subsidizing some 80% of the estimated expenditure.
If I may, Mr. Chairman, move away from the Recreation S/C's business for a while.
Concerning the recent announcement of coming changes re the membership of the Urban Council and the District Boards, I suspect that the Government gave birth to a mouse when it produced its Green Paper and the subsequent report that used various surveys and other means to kill at least on paper--the idea of direct elections to the Legislative Council.
The Government, at least in my view, has lost a lot of face over its Green Paper, and now, if it doesn't come up with at least one important change, then the whole exercise will be seen by the public as having been a giant waste of time and money.
So what is the Government's solution? I fear it will be to tamper with the present set-up of the Urban Council and find a way to put District Board members on the Council-probably ten of them, one from each Urban District Board. By this means I suppose the Government can then postulate that something positive has come out of the damp squib that the Green Paper turned out to be. Of course, I must confess that I am only shooting in the dark, though it's a sort of calculated shot.
And if indeed the Government made this change, and put 10 District Board members on the Council, then I must say quite bluntly that first of all it will be change for the sake of change—and more important, it will be a change for the worse, not the better.
Because those District Board members will be fighting with one another trying to push solely the interests of their own individual District Boards, and not the interests of Hong Kong's urban dwellers as a whole.
Thus I fear that many if not all Urban Council meetings will deteriorate into squabbling sessions with District Board members at one another's throats as they try to get another swimming pool or park or playground or sporting field for their individual district.
It will be messy, it will be bad, it will be counter-productive and it will be loaded with petty jealousies and selfish parish-pump politics.
The only thing I am sure about—if such a scenario eventuates is that there will be unanimity on one subject alone, and that is the subject of the lowly Refuse Collection Points. For, if my guess is right, most of the District Board members will be one-minded in trying to get rid of these essential RCPs from their own districts and foist them on to their neighbouring districts!
Mr. Chairman, with these few words, I support your motion to-day.
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