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the Commissioner of Police because even if the Commissioner of Police has said yes, the Recreation Select Committee may still say no. May I then suggest that this question be referred to the Recreation Select Committee meeting tomorrow morning under 'Any Other Business', at least we get an indication whether Council is receptive to this proposal first of all.

MR. KENNETH Lo (in English):----I do not think we should consider this in such a hurry, I think the first thing to do would be to ask the Commissioner whether he agrees to allow things to proceed like that, there is no point in wasting Council's time if he says no.

MR. HOWARD YOUNG (in English):-Mr. Chairman, I would like to say in passing that I agree it should not be considered in a hurry. This question has been linked with political activities and democracy. May I ask whether the chairman is aware of anyone in UK who has ascended to Parliament based on a soap box in 'Speakers' Corner'?

MR. KENNETH Lo (in English):-Mr. Chairman, no. (laughter)

MR. FREDERICK FUNG (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, mention was made of the district board elections, and there are 50 places where they can hold their campaigns, but I am wondering whether these places are indeed needed. Could there be other places where the candidates would like to use which we have not provided? Could the Urban Council identify more places for campaigning?

CHAIRMAN (in English):-We have talked about Hyde Park corners, but now we are going up to district board elections, but Mr. Kenneth Lo, would you like to answer?

MR. KENNETH Lo (in English): -I said nearly 50 places, I think there are quite a large number, surely among that number there would be a suitable number of

venues.

MR. C. Y. LEE (in Cantonese):---Mr. Chairman, Mr. Lo could not give us the exact names of the six Designated Public Areas, so can I ask, Mr. Chairman, that after the meeting these Designated Public Areas be made known to us and also the procedures for application for use, especially by the district board candidates?

MR. KENNETH Lo (in English):---Mr. Chairman, I do not think it appropriate for this Council to conduct the election, we provide the venues where they may make their election speeches.

MR. PAO PING-WING (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, at this point of the debate, I do not really know what sort of decision we have arrived at, are you referring the

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matter to the Commissioner of Police or is it to the Recreation Select Committee which is going to look into the matter again? Mr. Chairman, could you tell us what

we are going to do.

CHAIRMAN (in English):—It is not a debate, the chairman has answered a number of questions which have to do with the question, he has also very kindly answered a number of questions which were off the mark, I think that is enough, so let us move on to the next question.

4. MR. JOSEPH Y. S. CHAN asked the following question (in Cantonese):---In respect of the urban part of Recreation and Sport Service of the Recreation and Culture Department which the Council will take over as from 1 April 1985, what are the Council's plans for the management of the unit and what activities are proposed for it? What are Council's financial commitments in absorbing the urban part of the Recreation and Sport Service?

MR. KENNETH T. C. Lo, CHAIRMAN OF THE RECREATION SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in English):-This question asks, in respect of the urban part of Recreation and Sports Service of the Recreation and Culture Department, which the Council will take over as from 1 April 1985, what the Council's plans are for the management of the unit and wht activities are proposed for it.

The Council has not yet finalized plans for the taking over of the Recreation and Sports Service of the Recreation and Culture Department. A paper outlining interim transitional arrangement for this additional responsibility is to be presented to the Recreation Select Committee shortly.

Initially it is proposed that the existing policies and practices of the Recreation and Sports Service be retained for a transition period of up to six months. This will enable Council to study the service provided by the RSS and to make recommendations as to the best use of resources in the future. It will also enable the Council to plan for the integration of the RSS with our own sports promotion programme.

During this transition period it will be important that the service to the public does not in any way suffer, nor that the strong links which have been forged by the RSS with the district organizations, will be weakened in any way. It is mainly for this reason that the Recreation Select Committee will be looking at proposals to retain existing policies of the RSS for several months and to adopt programmes already prepared for the earlier part of the new year.

Turning to the question of finance, I understand that the cost of this additional commitment is of the order of $23 million per annum but the Recreation Select Committee has not yet had an opportunity to study the composition of this commitment so I am not yet able to comment in any detail upon it. This will be undertaken during the transition period which I have already mentioned.