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Wednesday, March 29, 1972
He refuted any suggestion that departments concerned with those projects
were in no hurry to get them upgraded, particularly since the Urban Council and
the Urban Services Department were undoubtedly the main instigators of such
processing.
"On the whole, I do not think there has been any undue delay without
good reason in the processing of recreational and amenity projects, and it
must be remembered that a large number of smaller recreational projects are
being built from the Urban and New Territories block votes, without going
through the Public Works Programme at all," he said.
Pilot Scheme
Plan
Mr. Alexander said he shared Mr. Salmon's hopes that it would be possible to build many more multi-purpose game-halls such as that being
built at Kai Tak.
"This is, however, being regarded as a pilot scheme and those, who
are perhaps a little too cautious, argue that we should see how the new hall will be used and what modifications will be thought to be desirable before
we rush into a massive building proposal," he said.
The same argument had been used in respect of study rooms the need for which and the supervision of which by comparatively junior staff had been
proved beyond a doubt, he added.
"We have, therefore recently been given authority to include study
rooms in our schedule of accommodation for Aberdeen and To Kwa Wan Marketa."
With regard to the Hon. Ellen Li's plea for more cultural activities for youth, Mr. Alexander said that during the past year, the Urban Council and the Urban Services Department had presented 177 performances of serious music, drama and dance
-
both Chinese and Western.
/He pointed