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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

MR. HOWARD H. W. YOUNG, CHAIRMAN OF THE RECREATION SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in Cantonese):―This question concerns the provision of fun pools and asks whether the Council should build one fun pool first and defer the rest until its popularity is judged by the usage rate.

The Council sent a team to the U.S.A. in 1981 to study the design and management aspects of swimming facilities and another team went to Japan in 1982, particularly to look at leisure or 'fun' pools, that was three or four years ago. In considering the report of the two visits, the Council noted with interest current ideas in leisure pool design and the consequential recommendations for incorporation into new swimming complexes.

There are at present 13 swimming pool complexes in the urban area. Swimming pool complexes in the pipeline include the swimming pools for Kowloon Park, in the Shun Lee Tsuen Recreation Ground in Kwun Tong, in Hammer Hill Road in Wong Tai Sin and in Shek Kip Mei Park Stage III in Sham Shui Po. In view of the relatively long planning lead time required, if we withhold planning for all but one of these pools, which the District Boards have accorded a high priority, in order to try out the 'leisure pool' concept in one pool only would mean that the others would be very considerably delayed and could not be able to start before 1993. Nevertheless the Recreation Select Committee will be consulted when the Schedules of Accommodation and sketch plans are to be drawn up. Each project can then be considered on its own merits and the provision of leisure pools in these projects can be fully discussed.

MR. FAN (in Cantonese):---Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask through you, Mr. Chairman, this question. If the leisure pools are to be built, will they be done on a district basis or on a territory-wide basis?

Mr. Young (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, of the leisure pools we have in mind there are three of them at various places in Kowloon, so it would be very difficult to designate any one as a territory-wide leisure pool. It is not our intention to have leisure pools in each and every district, so they are not exactly regional but for the time being, they serve a lot of areas in Kowloon.

Mr. Joseph Chan (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, for the swimming complexes with leisure pools, do we have any figures with regard to usage rate and to what extent are children interested in these leisure pools? In many other countries, the concept has been very fully developed, but if it is not suitable in Hong Kong, then perhaps consideration has to be made for local needs and we should not be following blindly the facilities provided in other countries. Perhaps we should consider not wasting any more funds on these leisure pools, can this be considered?

Mr. Young (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, Mr. CHAN asked whether we have figures relating with the usage rate of the leisure pools. We do not have such figures in Hong Kong because we have not yet had any Urban Council leisure

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

pools in Hong Kong but if Mr. CHAN can point out one leisure pool, then

give him the figures. There is another organization in Hong Kong perhaps I can that has got a fairly large leisure pool and the charges are very high, I am referring to the Ocean Park, of course. Ever since last year when the pools were over 500 000 people have used the pools, so I believe there is a demand opened, for leisure pools in Hong Kong. If we take the figures of Ocean Park and our pools from March to September this year, over 1.2 million people have come to the pools and it is about 1:6 if you put it in terms of ratio, but we certainly would not need 13 leisure pools.

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MR. STEPHEN LAU (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, our swimming pools are scattered throughout various districts in the urban area and I would like to ask Mr. YOUNG if consideration could be given to converting these pools to other uses during the winter so that people could have a chance to enjoy outdoor facilities in the winter with these pools.

MR. YOUNG (in Cantonese):—In other countries in the world, where it is cold enough, if the water can be frozen, then one can turn the pool into a skating rink, but in Hong Kong I am afraid we could not have that convenience because our temperatures do not go as low as that. But for swimming in winter, we have warm water pools in Sham Shui Po and Morrison Hill Road, so that there are pools for use even during the winter. As to whether other pools could be turned to other use, I would really like to see whether there is a demand because during the winter these two warm water swimming pools are not so well utilized. If we open the pools which are not heated during the winter, I am sure there would not be a lot of people wanting to swim in these two pools. As to whether these pools could be used for non-swimming purposes and activities during the winter, that would really depend on the sort of activities you have in mind. You might say that you could turn the swimming pool into a diving area, but if you were to dive in winter you would have to have a special wet suit. We would really need to study this further before coming to a conclusion. The only place where I have seen a swimming pool with a cover on top of the water surface was in a hotel and not in Hong Kong, and it was very small compared to our swimming pools. As to whether we really need to invest such lot of money in this, I think we really must consider the issue very carefully first.

(Mr. Edmund Cнow left at 3.00 p.m.)

3. MR. WALTER M. Sulke asked the following question (in English):-When this Council was asked at the beginning of the year to raise swimming pool entrance charges I objected on the grounds that this would decrease income from this source and keep many people, and especially youngsters, away from the pools. appears from the figures I have been given that in the last month before the raise attendance at swimming pools more than doubled as compared to the previous year and that in the four months following the raise attendance overall dropped by 35 per cent with some months showing drops of more than 50 per cent, and attendance

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