Page 85 of 485
Our 485
62
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
diving pool will be open for use. Some pools within a particular complex were designed to open to the public only in summer (e.g. the outdoor pool in Kowloon Park Swimming Pool) while the remaining pools within the same complex were designed for year-round operation. In consonance with the above design concepts and to achieve the greatest economy and management efficiency, the manning scales of the swimming pool complexes provide for the employment of a core team of staff to man the facilities to be augmented by temporary lifeguards during summer and other times when the number of swimmers required such augmentation. A departmental review on the prevention of accidents and another review on the cost of running swimming pools were conducted in 1985. The recommendations on the prevention of accidents review were submitted to and formally approved by the Council in November 1985. The manpower requirements for swimming pool complexes (Committee Paper REC/117/85) recommended a core team of 6 lifeguards per shift for a standard pool complex like Lai Chi Kok Park Swimming Pool, breakdown as follows:
(a) Either the main pool or the secondary pool: 3 lifeguards
(b) Either the set of one training and two teaching pools or one diving pool:
1 lifeguard
(c) The children's pool: 1 lifeguard
(d) A first aid post: 1 lifeguard
The number of temporary lifeguards in support of the core team during the peak season, as recommended in the 1985 review, is the same as that for their permanent/contract lifeguard counterparts in each case in (a) and (b) above so that the total number of lifeguards in a standard UC swimming pool will be 10 staff per shift.
The answer to the second part of the question is that a number of UC swimming pool complexes had been closed in the past three years pursuant to the service needs as mentioned in paragraph 2 above and during periods of maintenance and improvements. A summary showing the closure of swimming pool complexes in the past three years and their reasons is contained in Annex I.
To answer the last part of the question, the total manpower requirement for the full operation of all UC swimming pool complexes based on 10 lifeguards per shift for a complex like Lai Chi Kok Park, with less than 10 lifeguards for some of the smaller UC swimming pool complexes and 24 lifeguards for a special complex like Kowloon Park, is 137 lifeguards per shift. The individual manning figures for all UC swimming pools are contained in Annex II, whereas the strengths of lifeguards (permanent, contract, and temporary) for the full opening of all UC swimming pools are also shown. The way things are, no manning problems are experienced at the moment for the full opening of the UC swimming pools, although the recruitment of temporary lifeguards at peak seasons required close monitoring and fine-tuning in terms of manpower deployment as and when the turn-up rate for the appointment of the temporary staff is lower than expected.
Page 85
Page 86