Page 47 of 132
103
102
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Transport Department and their response is very favourable, and in principle they support this proposal. They will be engaging consultants to conduct a comprehensive survey on parking needs all over the territory and so it can be seen that parking is really a problem affecting many people in Hong Kong. So all in all I think providing parking spaces will enrich city life as the UC's slogan goes. And in fact I know that many Members including the Chairman are also concerned about this issue. I am sure you, Mr. Chairman, will support this proposal and I think you will definitely support the proposal. And I hope that Members will speak to support the motion. Mr. Chairman, this is the motion I would like to put forward.
CHAIRMAN (in English):—I reserve my right to speak.
MR. SAN STEPHEN WONG HON-CHING (in Cantonese):--Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The motion and the information provided by Mr. CHIANG have spelled out very clearly why in future when UC build new venues, suitable number of parking facilities should be provided. I would not dwell on the same point again here. Hong Kong is a small place and has a lot of vehicles. Since our venues and facilities are built in prime sites most of the time we must optimise the use of land resources. I second the motion. I hope Members will support our motion.
CHAIRMAN (in English):-Thank you. I shall call on those Members who have indicated their wishes to speak on the motion one by one from my list. Mr. WONG Shui-Lai, your turn to speak on the issue.
MR. WONG SHUI-LAI (in Cantonese):-Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In fact, Mr. CHIANG's motion has already explained the importance of providing parking facilities in UC venues. I fully support the idea of providing parking spaces at UC venues. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, in Hong Kong, land is scarce but there are a lot of people and our buildings are getting higher and higher. But then the Urban Council has not considered having to develop underground. We are only talking about taller and taller buildings. And so I hope that in future at Urban Council venues, we should consider having developments underground. They may be underground carparks or they may take other forms. The provision of parking facilities at UC venues is not an innovative idea. It is to meet the needs of the time as well as the needs of society. Provision of parking facilities at UC venues has a lot of advantages and I will attempt to mention a few points. First of all, apart from spending some money to provide the parking facilities, the Urban Council can also increase its revenue through providing parking facilities. The management and maintenance costs of carparks are very low. At present, Government carparks have been contracted out to private operators for management and we can see that the revenue generated is very high. So I think we should make use of UC venues to provide parking facilities. There are many advantages. First of all, those using the venues can be convenienced and secondly, it will be able to attract more members of the public to use UC venues because of provision of parking facilities. Thirdly, we will be able to alleviate the shortfall in parking spaces in the territory and we will also help to lessen the problem of illegal parking. And thus in view of the above factors, I support the motion and I urge that the UC venues under construction should provide a suitable number of parking spaces. In existing UC venues, we should consider providing parking facilities or additional parking spaces. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
MR. WONG SIU-YEE (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, when I first took part in the annual debate of the Urban Council and when I first spoke at the UC annual debate I have mentioned the same idea but not much emphasis was attached to my idea. The resistance came from an out-dated policy. But with the advancement of the society and the increasing needs of the public, the Urban Council must take that into account and revise its policy accordingly. We must let people know that the Urban Council is moving in tandem with the society. Mr. Chairman, I support the motion.
MR. JASON YUEN KING-YUK (in English):-Mr. Chairman, the subject was in fact once previously discussed in March 1991 under a committee paper of the Capital Works Select Committee. The paper spelled out the pros and cons of the issue. Though the overall tone was pretty conservative, we did review briefly the present state of parking space provisions in some of the major UC venues and when even as far as the possibilities of providing some parking floors in UC complexes of larger sites. At the end of the discussion, one of the consensus reached was that the idea was worthy of further exploration and that the Council may identify some larger UC complex projects as pilot schemes and to carry out the idea on experimental basis. But since then nothing really had happened and no one seemed to pursue the same issue any further. I am glad today that this subject has been raised again for Council debate. I personally perceive that cultural facilities such as the Cultural Centre, the Visual Art Centre and the Science Museum should provide or increase parking facilities without delay as it will help to further promote higher attendance rate or utilization rate. I still think that the provision of parking facilities in larger UC complexes especially those with markets would not only help to increase the viability of the market stalls inside but also reduce the on-street hawkers since housewives can go straight into the market and bypass the hawkers surrounding our new markets. Hawkers lived on attendance of the pedestrians and if markets are designed to cope with also motorists and turn them into pedestrians inside the market, the viability of the markets will certainly be increased. I hope what the Capital Works Select Committee previously reached as a consensus to carry out some pilot scheme can be followed up by actions. Mr. Chairman, with the above words, I support the motion.
THE HON. LI WAH-MING (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, on this motion, I agree with some and disagree with certain aspects. For UC venues, there are
Page 47 of 132