XN000022-1995-04-13 — Page 5

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Resumption of vehicle holding area in Kwai Chung

In response to press enquiries in connection with a slow drive by container truck drivers at the Kwai Chung container port today, a spokesman for the Transport Department said the truck drivers were well aware that they had to leave the site in question (Site M) upon the availability of a new container vehicle park at Stonecutter's Island which was opened on January 1, this year.

The spokesman said Site M has always been used as an emergency vehicle holding area to relieve traffic congestion at the Kwai Chung container port.

The site is essential in relieving the lock-up of traffic queues along Container Port Road by providing a temporary off-street accommodation.

In September last year, when container vehicle parks on Tsing Yi Island were closed to make way for Airport Projects, a group of container truck drivers, led by the Chairman of the Container Transportation Employees General Union (CTEGU), claimed they could not secure sufficient parking spaces in the existing and new parking lots and approached the District Lands Officer/Kwai Tsing for assistance.

After a meeting with the Union and taking into consideration that the loss of parking spaces might cause traffic congestion in the container port area and might delay the taking over of the container vehicle parks for the critical Airport Projects, the Government agreed with the Union that Site M would be made available for free parking of container trucks temporarily until a new site on Stonecutter's Island site was available.

However, when the new container vehicle park at Stonecutter's Island was opened on January 1 this year, the container truck drivers refused to leave Site M as promised despite written reminder from the Transport Department. They claimed that the Government should have given the Union more weight when the new vehicle park at Stonecutter's Island was tendered, and that the new operator at the Stonecutter's Vehicle Park was letting out parking spaces in batches of 2 or 3 instead of individual parking spaces.

In response, the Transport Department successfully arranged with the operator of the Stonecutter's Vehicle Park so that the terms of rental could meet the Union's requests. This should have been able to provide some parking spaces for CTEGU's members. In addition, in March this year, the CTEGU has successfully tendered a parking lot in Kwai Chung which can accommodate about 40 container vehicles.