TNAG-2959-FCO40-4238-Future-of-Hong-Kong-British-Consulate-General-building-incl-1993 — Page 21

HKCD 406/2

02 FE 1993

NOTE FOR FILE 406/2: FUTURE CONSULATE GENERAL BUILDING

1.

At OED request, I attended a meeting at Farrells on 1

February at 10.00 am. Present was Mr Burchell from Farrells

and Messrs Newey, Whittle and Smith from OED and Mr Reading

from the British Council. The meeting was to discuss cost

savings drawn up by Farrells on 25 January for consideration

by the FCO.

fide

11

2.

I left after one and a half hours. The conclusions drawn

by the meeting were that there was no alternative to deleting

one residential unit in addition the one to be deleted in the

British Consulate floor to be removed. Indeed the only room

for flexibility was in deciding which of the parking space

options to keep and which to lose. There are three blocks of parking spaces, block A represents the 42 parking spaces under the British Consulate, block B the 20 parking spaces behind the security desk at level 1 and block C the 9 parking spaces which would have been assigned next to the residential flats. (If these are deleted a likely option Farrells will need

to design convenient access for residents from the remaining

car parking space to their flats).

spaces

-

3. It was recognised that removing the link between the

British Council and the Consulate would make the building less

flexible. For instance, were the British Council to have

surplus space, the absence of a link would make it most convenient for the Consulate to use this space. On balance,

it was felt that this was something that could be lived with.

4. There was some discussion about changing the outside appearance of the building. Was the stone facing chosen

file.note.NAT

JEB