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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

(i) A site at Quarry Bay intended as a district open space will form part of a comprehensive redevelopment scheme at Kornhill which is expected to house 30,000 people. The U.S.D. would ensure that adequate open space is incorporated into the new project.

Group II—Sites from which existing Urban Council facilities will have to be removed

(a) An existing public toilet at the junction of Wing Lok Street and Rumsey Street has been demolished and will be reprovisioned by the M.T.R.C. on a nearby site at Wing Wo Street. The new toilet would be ready for use by 1984.

(b) A small garden at Rumsey Street east of the multi-storey carpark is demolished. This site was originally allocated on a temporary basis to the U.C. for development and hence no reprovisioning is provided when it is required for permanent development.

(c) The Tonnochy Road Playground which consisted of a basketball court and a rest garden has been alienated for M.T.R. works since December 1981. A temporary sitting-out area has been reprovisioned at Canal Road under the flyover. The M.T.R.C. would re-instate the playground on the original site.

(d) Victoria Park

Two mini-soccer pitches and children's playground have been alienated for M.T.R. works since January 1982. The M.T.R.C. will re-instate these facilities on completion of their works in 1986. In the meantime, two mini-soccer pitches will be built by the M.T.R.C. on a site at Moreton Terrace as a temporary reprovisioning measure. These will be ready by 1983.

(e) Sai Wan Ho Market

The existing market and hawker bazaar will be required for the construction of an M.T.R. station and concourse which is due to commence in the middle of the year. The U.C. has agreed to enter into a joint venture with the M.T.R.C. to redevelop the site on completion of M.T.R. works, and a modern U.C. complex which will house a market, offices, recreation facilities, an auditorium, and other cultural facilities. Phase I of this will be completed in 1983 and Phase II is scheduled for completion in 1986. This site will also contain domestic accommodation in a multi-storey development over the U.C. complex. The U.C.'s share of the cost of this development is in the order of $74 million.

(f) A number of games pitches, rest gardens, sitting-out areas at Chai Wan Road and Chai Wan Park will have to be removed for M.T.R. works by June 1982. It is intended that these facilities will be reprovisioned on sites on the reclamation in due course.

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

(g) Healthy Village Playground

The M.T.R.C. will require the western portion of the playground for use as a works area from July 1982 to December 1984 and also an area at the edge of the playground for the permanent siting of two vent shafts. A children's playground and a rest garden will be affected by the alienation, and it is intended that the facilities will be reprovisioned on a site to the east of the playground.

MRS. HO (in English): Mr. Chairman, could I ask two supplementaries. The first one is that in Group I, Mr. FUNG has mentioned that the projects could be deferred up to periods of four years. Is there actually a case when it comes to the Kowloon projects which have been delayed by the M.T.R.? Secondly, is the Council indemnified against inflation by the M.T.R.?

MR. FUNG (in English): Mr. Chairman, in the case of the Kowloon Modified Initial System, I think a report was given in the Capital Works Select Committee a few months ago concerning the same point, and a table was produced showing whether there had been any delay in handing back sites to the Council. I am sure MRS. HO also had a copy of that information previously. As far as the Council being indemnified for additional costs, I don't think we are in a position to ask for indemnification since both Urban Council projects and M.T.R. projects are all for the good of Hong Kong citizens anyway.

DR. KIM Y. S. CHAM (in English): Mr. Chairman, I note with interest that in the case of Sai Wan Ho Market, there will be domestic accommodation constructed over and above our Urban Council complexes, and at the same time, the Urban Council has to share the cost to the extent of $74 million towards construction. Would the sale or rental income derived from the domestic accommodation be given to the Council in any portion at all?

MR. FUNG (in English): Mr. Chairman, I wish we could participate in the profit of the commercial and private accommodation, but I think under the M.A.A. and the Urban Council Ordinance, lands allocated to the Urban Council are exclusively for Urban Council use only, and we cannot use the lands allocated to us for other purposes.

4. DR. DENNY M. H. HUANG asked the following question (in Cantonese):

(i) May I be given a brief account of this Council's overall development plan of the Kowloon Park? What is likely to be its features and the reason for the unacceptable delay in completion for so many years?

(ii) We all know that the Town Planning Board intends to turn the strip of land along the Nathan Road side of Kowloon Park into shops from the Austin Road junction to Haiphong Road; may I therefore be enlightened on the following points:

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