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new light refreshment kiosk outside the High Block, was completed last month. Our City Hall caterer has started selling ice-cream, soft drinks, lunch boxes and sweets from this counter. Areas surrounding the City Hall should be declared hawker prohibited areas in order to ensure a better environment once the service from the kiosk proves to be successful. At the request of the Council, the Public Works Department is now working on an overall plan to redesign the City Hall premises. This includes renovation of the Main Foyer, extension of the Low Block Ground Floor to accommodate a new box office and a music and book shop, as well as improvement and replacement of ground and wall finishes in various parts of the City Hall. A series of fountains along the moat in the Memorial Garden and flower beds along the elevated walkway will also be installed as soon as plans are finalized.
The main restraining factor in our cultural expansion is limited facilities in the City Hall, while at the same time, the Council must allow ample provision for educational and cultural organisations, etc. to use the City Hall facilities for their performances and presentations. Before the Tsim Sha Tsui Cultural Complex is completed in 1982, the Council has to consider seriously the hiring of outside venues for its own cultural presentations, in order not to hamper our ambitious popular cultural expansion programme.
In regard to popular recreational activities, the Council has made rapid strides this year. In conjunction with various governing sport bodies, reputable sports organisations and interested Government Departments, the Council has organised and sponsored a great variety of recreation and sports promotion activities and projects covering competitions in soccer, mini-soccer, basketball, volleyball, tennis, table tennis, cycling, canoeing, bowling, judo, roller skating, badminton, swimming, water polo, handball and karting, as well as training/coaching courses in volleyball, athletics, gymnastics, water-polo, diving, taichi, softball and swimming, all of which are ideal and popular activities for Hong Kong people, especially the youngsters. This year, up to the end of November, over 16,000 competitors and participants took part in the Council sponsored sports activities which were enjoyed by nearly 440,000 spectators. The Recreational Activities Vote for the year 1977-78 is HK$2,000,000 and activities will be further expanded to cover boxing, fencing, karatedo, weight lifting, body building and other types of sporting activities. The only limiting factor at this moment is shortage of staff to handle the vast amount of work related to activities and this problem will be overcome gradually through the setting up of the Recreation Promotion Unit in the near future. The
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Council always enjoys cordial and close working relations with co-operating parties, especially the governing sports bodies which, with their expert knowledge, and with the Council's financial and management support, form a formidable driving force in the sports development in Hong Kong. The Council has a clearly defined policy in sports promotion and will always welcome joint promotion with interested parties. Public funds must be spent wisely and there should be minimum duplication and overlapping of activities, which can easily be achieved through involvement or acknowledgement of governing sports bodies which could co-ordinate and keep track of all related promotion works at different levels and locations.
In Hong Kong, traditionally, the development and promotion of sports has been left to the voluntary efforts of governing sports bodies and recreation organizations holding private recreational lease. Organizations would develop the land and provide recreational facilities for healthy leisure time. Furthermore, such facilities would be available for use by the public whenever possible and are very valuable contributions in meeting the community's needs. Most of these non-profit making organisations do not receive Government financial assistance; instead, they have been gallantly serving the sports-loving people by improving and enlarging the facilities through savings made possible by shrewd management of volunteers and financial undertaking of individual members. These organizations paid property tax in the past as the amount involved was not significant. However, since 1976 these organizations have faced serious financial problems as the property tax increased tremendously due to the greatly increased re-assessed value of the property on the basis of the rent at which on the first day of any year of assessment such property might reasonably be expected to let. In the eyes of the Inland Revenue Department, private recreational organizations are considered to be no different from profit-making commercial enterprises. In recent years, the Government has increased its involvement in sports and recreation as the Government accepts that recreation and sport is one of the community's everyday needs and that their provision is part of the general fabric of the social services. If the Government is sincere in pursuing this forward-looking policy, Government must take urgent steps to stop the damaging action of demanding property tax from recreational organizations.
We have received an increasing number of complaints from shopkeepers and the public on our failure in keeping the hawkers under control, many of whom, whether licensed or unlicensed, are causing obstruction and nuisance with the result of environment deterioration against the interests of the general public with which the Council is
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new light refreshment kiosk outside the High Block, was completed last month. Our City Hall caterer has started selling ice-cream, soft drinks, lunch boxes and sweets from this counter. Areas surrounding the City Hall should be declared hawker prohibited areas in order to ensure a better environment once the service from the kiosk proves to be successful. At the request of the Council, the Public Works Department is now working in an overall plan to redesign the City Hall premises. This includes renovation of the Main Foyer, extension of the Low Block Ground Floor to accommodate a new box office and a music and book shop, as well as improvement and replacement of ground and wall finishes in various parts of the City Hall. A series of fountains along the moat in the Memorial Gardeen and flower beds along the elevated walkway will also be installed as soon as plans are finalized.
The main restraining factor in our cultural expansion is limited facilities in the City Hall, while at the same time, the Council must allow ample provision for educational and cultural organisations, etc. to use the City Hall facilities for their performances and presentations. Before the Tsim Sha Tsui Cultural Complex is completed in 1982, the Council has to consider seriously the hiring of outside venues for its own cultural presentations, in order not to hamper our ambitious popular culutral expansion programme.
In regard to popular recreational activities, the Council has made rapid strides this year. In conjunction with various governing sport bodies, reputable sports organisations and interested Government Departments, the Council has organised and sponsored a great variety of recreation and sports promotion activities and projects covering competitions in soccer, mini-soccer, basketball, volleyball, tennis, table tennis, cycling, canoeing, bowling, judo, roller skating, badminton, swimming, water polo, handball and karting, as well as training/coaching courses in volleyball, athletics, gymnastics, water-polo, diving, taichi, softball and swimming, all of which are ideal and popular activities for Hong Kong people, especially the youngsters. This year, up to the end of November, over 16,000 competitors and participants took part in the Council sponsored sports activities which were enjoyed by nearly 440,000 spectators. The Recreational Activities Vote for the year 1977-78 is HK$2,000,000 and activities will be further expanded to cover boxing, fencing, karatedo, weight lifting, body building and other types of sporting activities. The only limiting factor at this moment is shortage of staff to handle the vast amount of work related to activities and this problem will be overcome gradually through the setting up of the Recreation Promotion Unit in the near future. The
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Page 140 of 174
241
Council always enjoys cordial and close working relations with co- operating parties, especially the governing sports bodies which, with their expert knowledge, and with the Council's financial and manage- ment support, form a formidable driving force in the sports develop- ment in Hong Kong. The Council has a clearly defined policy in sports promotion and will always welcome joint promotion with in- terested parties. Public funds must be spent wisely and there should be minimum duplication and overlapping of activities, which can easily be achieved through involvement or acknowledgement of governing sports bodies which could co-ordinate and keep track of all related promotion works at different levels and locations.
The
In Hong Kong, traditionally, the development and promotion of sports has been left to the voluntary efforts of governing sports bodies and recreation organizations holding private recreational lease. organizations would develop the land and provide recreational facilities for healthy leisure time. Furthermore, such facilities would be available for use by the public whenever possible and are very valuable contribu- tions in meeting the community's needs. Most of these non-profit making organisations do not receive Government financial assistance, instead they have been gallantly serving the sports-loving people by improving and enlarging the facilities through savings made possible by shrewd management of volunteers and financial undertaking of individual members. These organizations paid property tax in the past as the amount involved was not significant. However, since 1976 these organizations have faced serious financial problems as the property tax increased tremendously due to the greatly increased re-assessed value of the property on the basis of the rent at which on the first day of any year of assessment such property might reasonably be expected to let. In the yes of the Inland Revenue Department, private recreational organizations are considered to be no different from profit making commercial enterprises. In recent years the Government has increased its involvement in sports and recreation as the Government accepts that recreation and sport is one of the community's everyday needs and that their provision is part of the general fabric of the social services. If the Government is sincere to pursue this forward looking policy, Government must take urgent step to stop the damaging action of demanding property tax from recreational organizations.
We have received an increasing number of complaints from shop- keepers and the public on our failure in keeping the hawkers under control, many of whom, whether licensed or unlicensed, are causing obstruction and nuisance with the result of environment deterioration against the interests of the general public with which the Council is
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