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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
He said (in English):—Mr. Chairman, as Chairman of the Recreation Select Committee, I rise on the motion standing in my name:
'RESOLVED that the Pleasure Grounds (Urban Council) (Amendment) (No. 2) By-law 1992 be made under Section 109 of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance, Cap. 132.’
This amendment will enable new charges for Urban Council bowling greens to take effect from 1 August.
In May, Members of the Recreation and Finance Select Committees decided that in order to encourage usage, the present hire charges for use of Council's bowling greens should be maintained. However, in the interests of consistency, Members also approved the introduction of a floodlighting charge of $44 per rink hour when floodlights are in use and a charge at 20% of total receipts for sports events with admission fees or other income subject to a minimum charge of $240 per green per hour.
It is estimated that this revision should reduce the overall operating deficit to about $0.49 million. And, the Council's subsidy for bowling greens will be about 57%.
Against this background, Sir, I so move.
THE HON. MARVIN CHEUNG KIN-TUNG, VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE RECREATION SELECT COMMITTEE (in English):--I have pleasure in seconding the motion.
The question was put.
The motion was carried unanimously.
4.
THE HON. MAN SAI-CHEONG, moved the following motion: 'RESOLVED that this Council takes the initiative to launch a comprehensive and coherent programme of tree planting and landscape beautification in GREENING THE CITY and to monitor its progress by an on-going working group.'
He said (in Cantonese):-The topic for my motion today is to resolve that this Council takes the initiative to launch a comprehensive and coherent programme of tree planting and landscape beautification in GREENING THE CITY and to monitor its progress by an on-going working group.
Exactly six months ago at the Annual Conventional Debate of this Council, I have proposed in the title of 'Greening Hong Kong should start by the Urban Council' so as to gradually change Hong Kong into a city garden and we have trees along the road to beautify the city. Subsequently no matter the Chairman of the Urban Council, Dr. Ronald LEUNG, or the Director of Urban Services, Mr. BARMA, has made very positive responses. To beautify the environment of Hong Kong, we must have a coherent and comprehensive programme for this Council to take the lead to start off a city greening programme; and to monitor its progress by a permanent working group will be most appropriate.
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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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53
If we compare ourselves with another city in Asia which is economically comparable with Hong Kong: Singapore, even though we may not feel shameful of ourselves, we are still comparing badly with Singapore. This is because Singapore has developed systematically into a garden city while Hong Kong up till today does not have a comprehensive programme at the central level to coordinate a comprehensive greening programme. So we do not have greening awareness in terms of town planning.
Therefore, if we are to promote greenery we must educate the public to know the merits of greening. Last month at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil there were 154 countries signing the 'Accord on Climatic Changes' pointing out that by growing more trees or reducing the cutting down of trees would be able to make the weather less acceptable to the tragic effect of green house. Growing trees would be able to purify the air and also through the air it will be able to absorb the carbon dioxide in the air. By growing more trees it would be able to provide more shade and cool down the air temperature on the ground. Being a responsive government and also an economic entity on the world we have the responsibility of laying down a comprehensive programme to grow trees and also to echo the worldwide environmental protection campaign.
Greening at one level is able to beautify the environment, on the other hand, is able to beautify the city and thus improve the living standards of the residents. All along the government has attached a lot of importance to improving the economic well being of the citizens. However, improving the quality of living does not confine to the economic aspect. It also involves the improvement of the social environment and also beautifying the city environment so as to make Hong Kong a lovely place to live. In the past, because economically we are less well off, therefore, in terms of priority, greening of the city environment is being accorded lower priority. However, we are now already in the 90's, the residents have high expectations on their standards of living and also have high expectations on their living environment. Therefore we have to spend more efforts on growing more trees and beautifying the environment so as to meet the increasing demand by the citizens.
In the past, the Council has contributed a lot to greening the environment. To green the urban area, the Council can launch a more comprehensive greening programme though in the past the Council has been studying with the District Boards on joint planting programmes, and the Territory Development Department also plans to grow more trees in the sub-urban area. Part of it includes planting more trees on the eroded slopes and other areas which amount to a total area of 55 hectares. However, there are a lot of constraints. First of all, many urban streets are too narrow to plant trees, and in the older districts we might not be able to spare enough space for tree planting. Even though in the new private and government developed areas, we have already incorporated provisions to plant more trees but very often these provisions are very vague. On the contrary, the most common scenario is that old trees are being cut for urban development and also there has been a less careful selection of trees in the urban areas which lead to trees dying because of unsuitable or
Page 32 of 126
Page 32 of 126
52
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
He said (in English):—Mr. Chairman, as Chairman of the Recreation Select Committee, I rise on the motion standing in my name:
'RESOLVED that the Pleasure Grounds (Urban Council) (Amendment) (No. 2) By-law 1992 be made under Section 109 of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance, Cap. 132.’
This amendment will enable new charges for Urban Council bowling greens to take effect from 1 August.
In May, Members of the Recreation and Finance Select Committees decided that in order to encourage usage, the present hire charges for use of Council's bowling greens should be maintained. However, in the interests of consistency, Members also approved the introduction of a floodlighting charge of $44 per rink hour when floodlights are in use and a charge at 20% of total receipts for sports events with admission fees or other income subject to a minimum charge of $240 per green per hour.
It is estimated that this revision should reduce the overall operating deficit to about $0.49 million. And, the Council's subsidy for bowling greens will be about 57%.
Against this background, Sir, I so move.
THE HON. MARVIN CHEUNG KIN-TUNG, VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE RECREATION SELECT COMMITTEE (in English):--I have pleasure in seconding the motion.
The question was put.
The motion was carried unanimously.
4.
THE HON. MAN SAI-CHEONG, moved the following motion: 'RESOLVED that this Council takes the initiative to launch a comprehensive and coherent programme of tree planting and landscape beautification in GREENING THE CITY and to monitor its progress by an on-going working group.'
He said (in Cantonese):-The topic for my motion today is to resolve that this Council takes the initiative to launch a comprehensive and coherent programme of tree planting and landscape beautification in GREENING THE CITY and to monitor its progress by an on-going working group.
Exactly six months ago at the Annual Conventional Debate of this Council, I have proposed in the title of 'Greening Hong Kong should start by the Urban Council' so as to gradually change Hong Kong into a city garden and we have trees along the road to beautify the city. Subsequently no matter the Chairman of the Urban Council, Dr. Ronald LEUNG, or the Director of Urban Services, Mr. BARMA, has made very positive responses. To beautify the environment of Hong Kong, we must have a coherent and comprehensive programme for this Council to take the lead to start off a city greening programme; and to monitor its progress by a permanent working group will be most appropriate.
Page 32 of 126
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Page 32 of 126
53
If we compare ourselves with another city in Asia which is economically comparable with Hong Kong: Singapore, even though we may not feel shameful of ourselves, we are still comparing badly with Singapore. This is because Singapore has developed systematically into a garden city while Hong Kong up till today does not have a comprehensive programme at the central level to coordinate a comprehensive greening programme. So we do not have greening awareness in terms of town planning.
Therefore, if we are to promote greenery we must educate the public to know the merits of greening. Last month at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil there were 154 countries signing the 'Accord on Climatic Changes' pointing out that by growing more trees or reducing the cutting down of trees would be able to make the weather less acceptable to the tragic effect of green house. Growing trees would be able to purify the air and also through the air it will be able to absorb the carbon dioxide in the air. By growing more trees it would be able to provide more shade and cool down the air temperature on the ground. Being a responsive government and also an economic entity on the world we have the responsibility of laying down a comprehensive programme to grow trees and also to echo the worldwide environmental protection campaign.
Greening at one level is able to beautify the environment, on the other hand, is able to beautify the city and thus improve the living standards of the residents. All along the government has attached a lot of importance to improving the economic well being of the citizens. However, improving the quality of living does not confine to the economic aspect. It also involves the improvement of the social environment and also beautifying the city environment so as to make Hong Kong a lovely place to live. In the past, because economically we are less well off, therefore, in terms of priority, greening of the city environment is being accorded lower priority. However, we are now already in the 90's, the residents have high expectations on their standards of living and also have high expectations on their living environment. Therefore we have to spend more efforts on growing more trees and beautifying the environment so as to meet the increasing demand by the citizens.
In the past, the Council has contributed a lot to greening the environment. To green the urban area, the Council can launch a more comprehensive greening programme though in the past the Council has been studying with the District Boards on joint planting programmes, and the Territory Development Department also plans to grow more trees in the sub-urban area. Part of it includes planting more trees on the eroded slopes and other areas which amount to a total area of 55 hectares. However, there are a lot of constraints. First of all, many urban streets are too narrow to plant trees, and in the older districts we might not be able to spare enough space for tree planting. Even though in the new private and government developed areas, we have already incorporated provisions to plant more trees but very often these provisions are very vague. On the contrary, the most common scenario is that old trees are being cut for urban development and also there has been a less careful selection of trees in the urban areas which lead to trees dying because of unsuitable or
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