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turnstile will automatically reject anybody to enter once the pool is full. As the turnstile system is separately used for children and adults, there are occasions that while the child is admitted, his/her parents are rejected, thus causing safety problem. I wonder if any improvement can be made to the automatic turnstile system to avoid these from happening?
MR. RONNIE WONG MAN-CHIU (in Cantonese):-Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Concerning the possibility that children may be admitted while their adult family members are rejected, I think instead of doing something to the automatic turnstile system, we can leave it to the officers in-charge to handle individual cases with discretion. I am sure they can allow one or two extra persons to enter without causing any trouble.
MR IP KWOK-CHUNG (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, the problem is that I have received a lot of complaints from the public that while the children were admitted, the adults were not allowed to enter and there was no staff around to deal with the matters. I hope Mr. WONG will liaise with the Department to deploy more staff to handle such problem.
MR. RONNIE WONG MAN-CHIU (in Cantonese):-I will relay this view to our Select Committee.
MR. MOK YING-FAN (in Cantonese):—I have two follow-up questions. I think it is an assumption that the public is accustomed to tendering exact fare. I think the Urban Council should provide an ideal service for the public. The first question is: when we tried out the 'Super-7' note-to-coin change machine, had we considered making reference to other companies who made use of note-to-coin change machines? Had we tried to borrow their experience and to see what kind of machines they were using? The second question is: since immediate improvement seems to be impossible now, so in terms of publicity, has the Council or the Department considered stepping it up so that the public will be aware of making available enough coins before they arrive at the public swimming pools? As far as I know coins are also required for using the lockers. Apart from tendering exact fare to pay for admission to the swimming pools, coins are also required for using the lockers. It is noted from the committee paper that the Department is going to step up appropriate publicity. Has anything been done in this regard?
MR. RONNIE WONG MAN-CHIU (in Cantonese):--Mr. Chairman, concerning the 'Super-7' machine, when the Department tried out the system, different brands had been considered. The conclusion reached by the Department was a correct one. As for publicity, I am sure the Department will step up appropriate publicity. This point will be reiterated at the next Recreation Select Committee meeting.
7. MR. JOSEPH CHAN YEUK-SUT asked the following question (in Cantonese): The red flag and shark infested-water warning signs have recently been posted at most of the gazetted beaches in the southern part of the Hong Kong
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island. In the circumstances, some beach-goers would prefer swimming in public swimming pools for obvious reasons. I would like to ask the Council whether the existing opening hours of public swimming pools and the level of related services are able to meet the increase in demand for such?
MR. RONNIE WONG MAN-CHIU, Chairman of the Recreation Select Committee, replied as follows (in Cantonese):
The question is whether the existing opening hours of public swimming pools and the level of related services are able to meet the increase in demand as a result of the 'Shark threat' leading to the closure of all gazetted beaches in the southern part of the Hong Kong Island.
The Council operates 13 swimming pools. Ten of these pools are open on single session basis from 6.30 am to 9.00 pm. The other 3, which are the more popular pools, namely Kowloon Park, Victoria Park and Morrison Hill operate on a 3 session basis as follows:-
1st session 6.30 am-11.00 am 2nd session 12.30 pm 5.00 pm
3rd session 6.30 pm-10.00 pm
Since the closure of the beaches, the attendance at the swimming pools has been closely monitored. However, attendance figures recorded on Sunday 30th June (which was a very warm day with temperature of 32°C) show that our pools were only 16.4% to 51.5% full. A table showing the attendance pattern on 30th June at all our pools is in the Appendix. It therefore does not appear necessary at this stage to extend the opening hours of the pools. However, the department has already worked out a contingency plan which can be implemented as and when the situation becomes necessary. The plan will entail:
(a) extending of the closing time from 9.00 pm to 10.00 pm;
(b) operating the 3 popular pools in single session basis;
(c) reducing the number of block bookings; and
(d) opening up the training pools for general use.
MR. JOSEPH CHAN YUEK-SUT (in Cantonese):--Mr. Chairman, I have got a few supplementary questions. First of all, in ancient time Hon Yu wrote an essay appealing crocodiles to cease devouring people in Chiu Chau. After the essay was written, the crocodiles had disappeared. Now, since there is a presence of sharks in Hong Kong beaches, are there any effective measures that can be taken by the Department to prevent the sharks from entering the boom lines of the beaches? Do we have some kinds of net like the one used by the fishermen to catch the sharks or can we deploy some small submarines to monitor the situation in the coastal lines? The second question is: if the beaches are closed and not many people can go swimming and since we have a lot of good beaches e.g. Deep Water Bay, Shek O and Repulse Bay, in the summer seasons, can we
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turnstile will automatically reject anybody to enter once the pool is full. As the turnstile system is separately used for children and adults, there are occasions that while the child is admitted, his/her parents are rejected, thus causing safety problem. I wonder if any improvement can be made to the automatic turnstile system to avoid these from happening?
MR. RONNIE WONG MAN-CHIU (in Cantonese):-Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Concerning the possibility that children may be admitted while their adult family members are rejected, I think instead of doing something to the automatic turnstile system, we can leave it to the officers in-charge to handle individual cases with discretion. I am sure they can allow one or two extra persons to enter without causing any trouble.
MR IP KWOK-CHUNG (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, the problem is that I have received a lot of complaints from the public that while the children were admitted, the adults were not allowed to enter and there was no staff around to deal with the matters. I hope Mr. WONG will liaise with the Department to deploy more staff to handle such problem.
MR. RONNIE WONG MAN-CHIU (in Cantonese):-I will relay this view to our Select Committee.
MR. MOK YING-FAN (in Cantonese):—I have two follow-up questions. I think it is an assumption that the public is accustomed to tendering exact fare. I think the Urban Council should provide an ideal service for the public. The first question is: when we tried out the 'Super-7' note-to-coin change machine, had we considered making reference to other companies who made use of note-to-coin change machines? Had we tried to borrow their experience and to see what kind of machines they were using? The second question is: since immediate improvement seems to be impossible now, so in terms of publicity, has the Council or the Department considered stepping it up so that the public will be aware of making available enough coins before they arrive at the public swimming pools? As far as I know coins are also required for using the lockers. Apart from tendering exact fare to pay for admission to the swimming pools, coins are also required for using the lockers. It is noted from the committee paper that the Department is going to step up appropriate publicity. Has anything been done in this regard?
MR. RONNIE WONG MAN-CHIU (in Cantonese):--Mr. Chairman, concerning the 'Super-7' machine, when the Department tried out the system, different brands had been considered. The conclusion reached by the Department was a correct one. As for publicity, I am sure the Department will step up appropriate publicity. This point will be reiterated at the next Recreation Select Committee meeting.
7. MR. JOSEPH CHAN YEUK-SUT asked the following question (in Cantonese): The red flag and shark infested-water warning signs have recently been posted at most of the gazetted beaches in the southern part of the Hong Kong Page 38 of 126
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island. In the circumstances, some beach-goers would prefer swimming in public swimming pools for obvious reasons. I would like to ask the Council whether the existing opening hours of public swimming pools and the level of related services are able to meet the increase in demand for such?
MR. RONNIE WONG MAN-CHIU, Chairman of the Recreation Select Committee, replied as follows (in Cantonese):
The question is whether the existing opening hours of public swimming pools and the level of related services are able to meet the increase in demand as a result of the 'Shark threat' leading to the closure of all gazetted beaches in the southern part of the Hong Kong Island.
The Council operates 13 swimming pools. Ten of these pools are open on single session basis from 6.30 am to 9.00 pm. The other 3, which are the more popular pools, namely Kowloon Park, Victoria Park and Morrison Hill operate on a 3 session basis as follows:-
1st session 6.30 am-11.00 am 2nd session 12.30 pm 5.00 pm
3rd session 6.30 pm-10.00 pm
Since the closure of the beaches, the attendance at the swimming pools has been closely monitored. However, attendance figures recorded on Sunday 30th June (which was a very warm day with temperature of 32°C) show that our pools were only 16.4% to 51.5% full. A table showing the attendance pattern on 30th June at all our pools is in the Appendix. It therefore does not appear necessary at this stage to extend the opening hours of the pools. However, the department has already worked out a contingency plan which can be implemented as and when the situation becomes necessary. The plan will entail:
(a) extending of the closing time from 9.00 pm to 10.00 pm;
(b) operating the 3 popular pools in single session basis;
(c) reducing the number of block bookings; and
(d) opening up the training pools for general use.
MR. JOSEPH CHAN YUEK-SUT (in Cantonese):--Mr. Chairman, I have got a few supplementary questions. First of all, in ancient time Hon Yu wrote an essay appealing crocodiles to cease devouring people in Chiu Chau. After the essay was written, the crocodiles had disappeared. Now, since there is a presence of sharks in Hong Kong beaches, are there any effective measures that can be taken by the Department to prevent the sharks from entering the boom lines of the beaches? Do we have some kinds of net like the one used by the fishermen to catch the sharks or can we deploy some small submarines to monitor the situation in the coastal lines? The second question is: if the beaches are closed and not many people can go swimming and since we have a lot of good beaches e.g. Deep Water Bay, Shek O and Repulse Bay, in the summer seasons, can we
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