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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
I would like to know the reasons for the low rates of use of the above two hockey pitches. What measures will the Council take to improve such situation and to increase the use percentage of these venues? Will it consider to convert the artificially turfed hockey pitches into multi-purpose sports venues?
MR. PETER C. K. CHAN, CHAIRMAN OF THE RECREATION SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, the question concerns the usage rates of the Council's hockey pitches at King's Park and Happy Valley. It is in three parts and I will answer each of them separately.
The first part asks why the usage rates appear to be rather low.
The figures Mr. Wu has quoted relate to hockey's 'low' season, which is from May to September (the main playing season is from October to April). Moreover, they are averages of usage in both peak and off-peak hours. 'Off-peak hours' are those mid-week, day-time hours when most people are at work or in school. It is therefore natural that usage would be low during those hours, thus bringing down the overall average. Peak-hour usage is 51% in the off-season. It is 77% in the high-season when the average rate is 54%. The true picture is therefore reasonably good. I recognize that these rates are lower than for certain well-established sports, such as soccer and tennis. But Members should bear in mind that, in Hong Kong, hockey is at a relatively early stage of development.
The second part of the question is how the Council proposes to improve the situation.
The Department and the Hong Kong Hockey Association are actively exploring ways of promoting the sport, and thus increasing usage of our pitches. Among the more promising ideas are the recently introduced 'Summer leagues' at Happy Valley, and off-season training for the national squad at King's Park. Others are the 'Junior Hockey Promotion Scheme' and the "Tertiary Institution Hockey Development Programmes'. The Department and the Association will continue to seek new ways of improving the position.
The third part of the question is whether the Council will consider converting hockey pitches with artificial turf into multi-purpose sports venues.
The artificial surfaces of the two hockey pitches at King's Park and Happy Valley are specifically designed for hockey. They are occasionally used for other sports and for special activities such as family fun days. But the scope for this is limited because we cannot permit activities which may damage the surface which is, in any case, quite abrasive and therefore unsuitable for activities in which people are likely to fall over a lot. Moreover, these pitches are too small for sports like soccer and rugby.
Therefore, while we do—and will continue to—use these pitches for activities other than hockey, this is not going to lead to any significant improvement to usage. After all, the present rate of usage is not really so low as to cause concern on a specialized facility.
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MR. JOHN WU MAN-KEUNG (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask a supplementary question. When you mentioned the peak season, i.e. from October to April, why the usage rate in April is still below 50% or even for the month of October, the usage rate of the hockey pitches at Happy Valley is only just over 44.29% and at King's Park is just around 33.53%? That is the first part of my question. The second question is: from my understanding, if a sportsman wears appropriate shoes such as rubber shoes, no damage should be done to the artificial turf. I would like to ask if some sports where some players are wearing proper shoes or if the sports are not so vigorous which require only a small area to move around, can we consider allowing activities such as handball, gateball and shuttlecock to take place at these hockey pitches?
MR. PETER C. K. CHAN (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, every Sunday, I spend a lot of time facing the hockey pitch at King's Park which is right next to where I play tennis. So, I can only answer the technical question out of my own knowledge. Regarding the usage rate of the hockey pitch, in fact on Saturdays and Sundays, it is always full. As for Mondays to Fridays, because people have to go to work, the usage rate is rather low. As for individual months, I know that at King's Park, I think the maintenance period should be excluded from calculating the usage rates. But I'm sure I would definitely supply Mr. Wu with all necessary information as soon as it is obtained from the Department. Since I can always have a look at the hockey pitch, the artificial turf is watered every now and then. As regards damage caused by rubber shoes, I understand that certain sports such as soccer may affect the artificial turf because of the vigorous movement of playing soccer. As regards the question on whether such vigorous sports can be allowed to take place on the pitches or not, then we have to leave it to the experts to decide. But we would definitely take into account Members' views. As Mr. Lo King-man has said before, whatever is recorded today will be taken into consideration by the relevant committee.
MR. JOHN WU MAN-KEUNG (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, a point of clarification. If someone is wearing flat rubber shoes and the sport is not a vigorous one, can we allow such sports to take place at the artificial turf of the hockey pitches? In other words, I'm not saying that we should allow any vigorous sports other than hockey to take place at these hockey pitches.
MR. PETER C. K. CHAN (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, yes, we can certainly consider that. But we have to ask the Department to decide whether such a recommendation should be made to the committee. For example, can we allow school students to make use of the pitches from Monday to Friday. But for Saturdays and Sundays, we can also ask the Department to look into that and submit some recommendations to the Committee for deliberation. I personally cannot make any decisions. All I can decide is to request the Department to look into the whole issue again. Since Mr. Wu is also a Member of the
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