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while Hair Pin beach is only a few minutes' walk from Stanley Main and Rocky Bay from Shek O.

The department will be bringing to the attention of the Public Works Department the urgent need for additional parking areas at Middle Bay and South Bay, since these beaches are not served by public transport and therefore can only be reached by private car or by walking from Repulse Bay.

MR. FORSGATE:-Thank you for that reply, Mr. Chairman. Could this Council urge, and it is urgent, through the Commissioner of Police, because the parking situation is really chaotic. Anyone who has been frustrated in trying to reach a beach with a car must know that. Could we also ask you, Mr. Chairman, to bring to the attention of the District Commissioner, New Territories, the frustrating situation at the beaches in that part of the Colony which is out of our control.

CHAIRMAN: I heard the first half of that supplementary, Mr. FORSGATE, and the rest came through by osmosis.

MR. FORSGATE:-Thank you.

MR. SALES-Mr. Chairman, you are aware, of course, that the Urban Council is able to advise the Director of Urban Service on matters affecting beaches in the New Territories, so Mr. FORSGATE's second supplementary is also in order.

CHAIRMAN:-It's come through osmotically-(laughter).

MR. FORSGATE:-Fair enough, Mr. Chairman.

MR. HU:-I would ask one supplementary, Mr. Chairman. Do we have a section in Urban Services Department called New Territories section, dealing with the matters connected with the Urban Services Department and the New Territories Administration?

CHAIRMAN:---I'm sorry, Mr. Hu.

MR. HU:-Do we have a section in Urban Services Department dealing with matters that are of mutual concern to the New Territories and the Urban Services Department?

CHAIRMAN:-There is a New Territories Division in the Urban Services Department, Mr. Hu, yes.

MR. HU:-Could we, through that Division, improve beach facilities in the New Territories.

MR. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, may I answer?

CHAIRMAN:-Yes.

MR. SALES: Sir, each time the Recreation and Amenities Select Committee has conducted a survey of beaches, that survey has included those in the New Territories, so that any opinion we may offer will be offered to the Director of Urban Services in his capacity as the com- petent authority for the New Territories in the matter of beaches. So the position which Mr. Hu wants to see enforced is already in being.

MR. HU: Mr. Chairman, why I ask this question is because I put forward one question in this meeting, but I was told it was not quite in order. What I did ask was how we could urge the New Territories Administration to provide more facilities for young people, such as beaches and camping spaces in the New Territories. Therefore, I ask this supplementary.

CHAIRMAN:-I see, Mr. Hu, but I think any urging of the New Territories Administration would, I think Mr. SALES will agree, have been out of order.

(9) MR. H. M. G. FORSGATE asked the following question:—

Does Government have any plans to extend the sitting out areas at the Deep Water Bay and Repulse Bay beaches by concreting over the rocky areas on both sides of these popular and overcrowded beaches?

MR. A. de O. SALES, CHAIRMAN OF THE RECREATION AND AMENITIES SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows:-

Mr. Chairman, proposals were made to Government last year that a sitting-out area be developed at the rocky area at the eastern end of the beach at Deep Water Bay, and that a promenade be built at the rocky western end of Repulse Bay beach.

A certain amount of reclamation would be required for these projects, and without further investigation it is not known whether they would result in erosion of the two beaches. Consultation between the Public Works and Marine Departments is in progress, and depending on the out- come of this it may be necessary to include an item in the Public Works Programme for a laboratory hydrological investigation, possibly to be carried out by Hong Kong University or by the Hydraulics Research Station in England.