1986 — Page 34

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

Preliminary thought has been given by the Government to the possible redevelopment of Statue Square and adjacent open spaces in Central, and Members of the Recreation Select Committee were recently informed of the details of a draft design brief for this work. However, I must point out that these plans have not reached the detailed design stage and any firm proposals for development of the Square generally or for the felling of trees, whether they are mature, 20-year old trees or not, should any be necessary, will be presented to Members of this Council for decision prior to implementation.

Assurances regarding not touching certain trees or otherwise can only be given after such proposals are put to Council and discussed, but I can say that it has been the consistent policy of Urban Council to be against felling of any trees without good reason and justification.

MR. SULKE (in English):-I understand that the sole reason of the architects concerned for wanting to cut down our trees is to improve the vista of a certain recently slightly refurbished building adjoining the Statue Square and surely that is not reason enough to cut down 20-year old trees which cannot be replanted.

MR. YOUNG (in English):-Mr. Chairman, I am not aware of any proposal which has been put to this Council to do exactly that, but I would certainly share Mr. SULKE's concern and I am quite sure my fellow Councillors would as well.

MR. LAWRENCE FUNG (in English):-Can I ask what is the timetable for this so- called preliminary planning, detailed design and construction of the changes to Statue Square because if any of us walk around there, we will see that the place really need some fairly urgent maintenance work due to the construction of the MTR and intensive usage. What is the timetable for implementation?

MR. YOUNG (in English):---Mr. Chairman, I believe Mr. FUNG was at the Recreation Select Committee that was held when this topic was raised. At that meeting, I do not recall that any hard and fast timetable had been mentioned, all that we discussed was that there would be a brief that would allow consultants or Government or someone else to look at the concept of refurbishing the Statue Square.

5. MR. WALTER M. SULKE asked the following question (in English):—I understand that there is a statutory requirement for bookings of small Urban Council venues such as the City Hall Recital Hall or the Aberdeen Civic Centre, to be made far in advance and late bookings may sometimes be accepted six weeks in advance. I understand the lengthy notice is required to comply with a somewhat old fashioned and outdated Ordinance. Since such long notice will obviously impede many from using our facilities, should this Ordinance not be changed and brought up-to-date?

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

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MR. LAWRENCE H. L. Fung, Chairman of the Culture Select Committee, replied as follows (in English):-This question concerns the licensing require- ment of designated civic centres.

Small Urban Council venues such as the City Hall Recital Hall and the Aberdeen Civic Centre are ‘civic centres' designated under section 105M of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance. For any public meeting or performance to be held there, the applicant has to obtain, as appropriate, the Chief Secretary's prior consent or a permit from the Commissioner for Television & Entertainment Licensing under section 8 of the Places of Public Entertainment Ordinance. The processing of these applications cuts across a number of government departments and at present there is an administrative guideline that not less than six weeks should be allowed for processing. Notwithstanding this guideline, there is an understanding that straight-forward applications which fall short of six weeks will still be processed. So far, no application has been rejected on the ground that it falls short of the six weeks administrative guideline.

With a view of minimizing licensing requirements as more small venues come off the ground, the Urban Services Department is in discussion with government departments concerned over the possibility of reducing the time required for processing applications for the necessary licences.

MR. SULKE (in English):—I am sorry but I am a little disappointed with that answer because it is not a quesiton of rejection because of the 6 weeks' requirement. I know, for instance, in Southern District, our Aberdeen Civic Centre is under-used because people did not apply. Surely, 7 days should be enough for the red-tape involved.

MR. LAWRENCE FUNG (in English):-Mr. Chairman, as I have stated in my answer there are several other relevant Government departments involved, and also in my answer I have mentioned that for special cases the Department is willing to cooperate to slide through the necessary procedure. So I do not think the 6 weeks' requirement, in fact, is a stumbling block. There are other reasons why the Centre is not being used.

(The Hon. Hilton CHEONG-LEEN left the meeting at 2.55 p.m.)

6. MR. WALTER M. SULKE asked the following question (in English):--- Recently there has been criticism of the Urban Council's use or misuse of identity card numbers. We have been accused of publishing identity card numbers on envelopes addressed to electors and of asking for identity card numbers in our Libraries. Identity cards per se are already an infringement of the liberty of the individual, publishing their numbers for all sorts of extraneous purposes is a further infringement of liberty. Surely the Urban Council should be very careful not to misuse our powers and should respect the individual's right to privacy and