XN000022-1997-04-23 — Page 39

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Reply:

(b)

(c)

Mr President,

(a)

(b)

whether the District Boards concerned, Members of this Council and members of the Regional Council as well as the local residents' organisations had been consulted before the above decision was made; if so, what their views were; if not, why not; and

given that the decision to hold the fireworks display has been widely criticized by the public, and following the meetings which the authorities concerned have held separately with this Council and the District Boards, what improvements have been made in regard to the overall arrangements for traffic, public safety and crowd dispersal?

It is difficult to estimate the precise number of people turning up at various viewing points to watch the fireworks display. Many factors, such as the weather and other attractive events concurrently held elsewhere, may well affect the actual turnout. However, we estimate that up to 300,000 spectators may turn up at the pedestrianised section of Castle Peak Road between Siu Lam and Hoi On Road, which is the prime spot for viewing the fireworks display.

The application for the staging of a fireworks display as part of the Lantau Link Opening Ceremony was approved after having taken into account a number of factors including likely public reaction and safety requirements. When the proposal was first submitted to Government, the Administration's assessment was that this would be acceptable to the community as a whole, subject to satisfactory arrangements being worked out on crowd control, traffic arrangements, and transport facilities in consultation with relevant District Boards and affected local residents.

We started consultation with the relevant District Boards and the Airport Consultative Committee on a preliminary proposal on crowd control, traffic, and public transportation arrangements in March. We have now just completed the consultation exercise. In overall terms, the public is generally supportive of the fireworks display but would like to have further improvements to the Administration's preliminary proposal on crowd control, traffic, and public transportation arrangements, with a view to minimizing inconvenience to affected residents and expediting the crowd dispersal after the fireworks display.