Minutes of the 6th Meeting of Tai Po District Council in 2017
Date: 2 November 2017 (Thursday) Time: 9:33 a.m. to 5:18 p.m. Venue: Conference Room, Tai Po District Council
Present Time of Arrival Time of Withdrawal
Chairman Mr. CHEUNG Hok-ming, GBS, JP Beginning of the meeting 3:15 p.m.
Vice-chairman Ms. WONG Pik-kiu, BBS, MH, JP Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting
Members Mr. AU Chun-wah Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting Mr. CHAN Cho-leung, MH Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting Mr. CHAN Siu-kuen, MH, JP Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting Mr. CHENG Chun-ping, JP Beginning of the meeting 4:20 p.m. Mr. CHENG Chun-wo Beginning of the meeting 4:40 p.m. Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai Beginning of the meeting 4:08 p.m. Mr. KWAN Wing-yip Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting Dr. LAU Chee-sing Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting Mr. LAU Yung-wai Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting Mr. LI Kwok-ying, BBS, MH, JP Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting Mr. LI Wah-kwong, Rex Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting Mr. LI Yiu-ban, BBS, MH, JP Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting Mr. LO Hiu-fung Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting Mr. TAM Wing-fun, Eric, MH Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting Mr. TANG Ming-tai, Patrick Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting Mr. WOO Kin-man, Clement Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting Mr. YAM Kai-bong, Francis Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting Mr. YAM Man-chuen Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting Mr. YU Chi-wing, Ken Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting - 2 -
Secretary Mr. LEE Yu-sau, Terence Beginning of the meeting End of the meeting Senior Executive Officer (District Council), Tai Po District Office, Home Affairs Department
In Attendance:
Ms. LUI Siu-chu, Andy, JP District Officer (Tai Po), Home Affairs Department Ms. LEE Kai-ying, Iris Assistant District Officer (Tai Po), Home Affairs Department Mr. JORDAN, David John District Commander (Tai Po), Hong Kong Police Force Mr. YAM Mun-ho District Social Welfare Officer/ Tai Po and North, Social Welfare Department Ms. LEUNG Miu-yin, Karen District Lands Officer/Tai Po, Lands Department Mr. CHAN Wing-yiu, Ronald Administrative Assistant (Lands), District Lands Office/Tai Po, Lands Department Mr. CHUNG Wing-hong, John Chief Engineer, Civil Engineering and Development Department Mr. HO Fuk-on, Arthur Senior Engineer/42 (New Territories East), Civil Engineering and Development Department Mr. CHAN Kai-lam, Allan Chief Manager (Tai Po, North & Shatin Region), Housing Department Mrs. CHIU TSE Shuk-yin Senior Housing Manager (Tai Po, North & Shatin Region), Housing Department Ms. FUNG Wai-kwan, Louisa Chief Transport Officer/New Territories East, Transport Department Ms. LAM Sung-kit, Tracy Chief School Development Officer (Tai Po), Education Bureau Mr. LAI Siu-kwong District Environmental Hygiene Superintendent (Tai Po), Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Ms. CHAN Cheuk-ling, Kathy Senior Town Planner (Tai Po), New Territories District Planning Division, Planning Department Mr. TAM Hung-kong District Leisure Manager(Tai Po), Leisure and Cultural Services Department Mr. CHAN Hoi-ming, Peter Senior Liaison Officer (1), Tai Po District Office, Home Affairs Department Ms. WONG Yu-hang, Anita Senior Liaison Officer (2) , Tai Po District Office, Home Affairs Department Ms. LEE Ho-yee, Trazy Executive Officer I (District Council), Tai Po District Office, Home Affairs Department
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Announcements
The Chairman welcomed Members and departmental representatives to the meeting and made the following announcements:
(i) Mr. John CHUNG, Chief Engineer (New Territories East) of the Civil Engineering and Development Department (“CEDD”) succeeded Mr. LAW Man-tim, who had already been transferred, to attend TPDC meetings from now on and was accompanied by Senior Engineer Mr. Arthur HO to attend this meeting. (ii) Mr. Allan CHAN, the new Chief Manager (Tai Po, North & Shatin Region) of the Housing Department, would attend TPDC meetings from now on and was accompanied by Senior Housing Manager Mrs. CHIU TSE Shuk-yin to attend this meeting.
(iii) Mr. Ronald CHAN, Administrative Assistant (Lands) of Tai Po District Lands Office, succeeded Ms. LAU So-mui, Rebecca to attend TPDC meetings from now on. (iv) Ms. CHU Ha-fan, Jessica, District Planning Officer/Sha Tin, Tai Po and North of the Planning Department was unable to attend this meeting due to other commitments, on whose behalf Senior Town Planner Ms. Kathy CHAN attended the meeting. (v) Mr. CHENG Wai, Co-opted Member of the Traffic and Transport Committee (“TTC”) had been absent from three consecutive TTC meetings without the TTC’s consent. Pursuant to Order 34(5) of the TPDC Standing Orders, he had already been disqualified automatically as a Co-opted Member.
I. Meeting with the Director of Highways
2. The Chairman welcomed Mr. CHUNG Kum-wah, Daniel, Director of Highways, Mr. TANG Chi-ming, Chief Highway Engineer/New Territories East and Mr. WONG Yiu-wa, Senior District Engineer/North East of the Highways Department (“HyD”) to the meeting.
3. Mr. Daniel CHUNG briefed Members on the work of HyD as follows:
The work of HyD’s four offices
(i) the Railway Development Office was mainly responsible for the development and planning of Hong Kong’s railway. At present, the Railway Development Office supervised and took forward railway projects funded by the Government (such as - 4 -
the Hong Kong Section of Guangzhou - Shenzhen - Hong Kong Express Rail Link (“XRL”) and the Shatin to Central Link) and some other projects by MTRCL. (ii) the HK-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (“HZMB”) HK Project Management Office was responsible for the planning and implementation of the HZMB and related highway infrastructure projects including the Tuen Mun to Chek Lap Kok Link and Tuen Mun Western Bypass. (iii) the Major Works Project Management Office was responsible for the implementation of other major highway projects than the HZMB and related highway infrastructure projects. (iv) HyD Regional Offices and Headquarters:
HyD Regional Offices were primarily responsible for maintenance of roads and development matters related to roads and highways.
the Headquarters had several technical divisions and units which were responsible for road lighting and other minor road works.
Major road construction projects of HyD
(v) Projects under construction on Hong Kong Island The implementation of the Central - Wan Chai Bypass and Island Eastern Corridor Link was currently in its peak period. The anticipated completion and commissioning date of the project was the end of next year or early 2019 and the traffic congestion along the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, on Gloucester Road in particular, should then be significantly alleviated. (vi) Projects under construction in New Territories
as far as New Territories East was concerned, the widening of Hiram’s Highway was underway while the widening of Fanling Highway, which was more related to Tai Po District, was also in good progress and as scheduled.
as regards New Territories West, HZMB Hong Kong Link Road (“HKLR”) and Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities (“HKBCF”) were currently under construction, whereas Tuen Mun – Chek Lap Kok Link (“TM-CLKL”) project was also underway. TM-CLKL would not only connect North Lantau and Tuen Mun to HZMB, but also serve as an alternative route from Lantau to the Airport. At present, the Southern Connection between North Lantau and the HKBCF was expected to complete in mid-2019 and the Northern Connection to Tuen Mun in end of 2020.
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Projects under Planning
(vii) Kowloon The funding of $42.3 billion from LegCo had recently been secured for the Central Kowloon Route and works would commence as soon as practicable. The said Route would serve the function similar to that of the Central - Wan Chai Bypass in connecting the east-west traffic to relieve traffic congestion on the existing east-west roads across Central Kowloon. (viii) New Territories Further studies of the Tuen Mun Western Bypass project had just been commenced. Besides, HyD was about to seek funding from LegCo for carrying out a feasibility study on Route 11 (i.e. connecting Lantau with Tsing Lung Tau, So Kwun Wat and Hung Shui Kiu). The said strategic route played a paramount role in the future development of the northwest New Territories. Lastly, the widening of Hiram's Highway Stage 2 was also under planning.
Railway development projects
(ix) XRL HyD expected the XRL project to commission in the third quarter of 2018. (x) Shatin to Central Link (“SCL”) The SCL was closely related to Tai Po District and would connect the entire railway network upon completion. The SCL had two sections, namely, the North South Corridor and the East West Corridor. The former was expected to complete in 2021 and the East Rail Line would then reach Hong Kong Island directly via this corridor. Hence, it would be very convenient for passengers of the East Rail (including Tai Po residents) to travel to Hong Kong Island in the future. The East West Corridor was expected to complete in mid-2019 and members of the public could take the West Rail Line directly at Ma On Shan to reach Tuen Mun without having to change. (xi) Seven priority items promulgated in the Railway Development Strategy 2014 New Territories
the Northern Link (“NOL”) was more related to Tai Po District. Along the NOL, a railway station would be built in Kwu Tung to connect to the West Rail. Therefore, in addition to linking to the West Rail by SCL, members of the public could also connect to the West Rail by NOL in the future. The - 6 -
public consultation on this item was expected to be conducted in 2018. HyD had already received a preliminary proposal from MTRCL and was currently discussing the details with MTRCL. It was hoped that HyD could give Members a detailed account next year.
to dovetail with the development of Hung Shui Kiu, HyD would build a station in Hung Shui Kiu while a Tuen Mun Extension of West Rail Line would also be built to connect other parts of Tuen Mun. Kowloon, Hong Kong Island and Lantau
the seven priority items also included East Kowloon Line, North Island Line, South Island Line (West) (while South Island Line (East) had already completed and commissioned in 2016) and Tung Chung West Extension.
Major works in Tai Po District
(xii) Universal Accessibility Programme – Original Programme Eight items in Tai Po District had been completed while six others were underway. The last item which would span over the East Rail Line had to be slightly deferred owing to the need to integrate with other works. (xiii) Universal Accessibility Programme – Expanded Programme Three items under the Extended Programme were underway. (xiv) Next Phase of Universal Accessibility (“UA”) Programme HyD would include in the Next Phase of the UA Programme footbridges and subways which had not been covered by the Original Programme provided that they met certain conditions. Tai Po District had earlier nominated three footbridges or subways for the next phase of the UA Programme. HyD would carry out relevant studies for implementing the works as soon as practicable. (xv) Bus-bus interchange on Fanling Highway HyD was currently constructing on a slip road of Fanling Highway south bound near Ho Ka Yuen a 65-metre long bus bay. Given the heavy traffic on the main road of the expressway, the bus-bus interchange would need to be located on a slip road to avoid affecting the traffic and the location near Ho Ka Yuen was suitable. Four buses could park at the covered bus-bus interchange of which the works were expected to complete in the end of 2018. (xvi) Retrofitting of cover for a walkway TPDC had nominated earlier the walkway from the junction between Plover Cove - 7 -
Road and Nam Wan Road that ran along Nam Wan Road via Wong Shiu Chi Secondary School to Tai Po Market Station for constructing a cover. HyD would carry out a feasibility study as soon as possible and if the said routeing was found to be viable, detailed design and construction would commence expeditiously. HyD would report progress to TPDC at an appropriate time. (xvii) Enhancement of vegetated slopes HyD had in the past planted plenty of Acacia confuse on roadsides for greening purposes. With the life expectancy of approximately 50 years, the majority of Acacia had now reached their senescent stage. Not only did they develop a tilt, but were also susceptible to collapses during gale or rainstorm, thus posing a significant threat to public safety. HyD would systematically replace overmature trees in accordance with their health condition. As far as the species were concerned, HyD would choose some native or localised species and would consult TPDC prior to implementation. In addition to trees, HyD would also grow flowering plants so that different plants would bloom in different seasons to further beautify the environment. (xviii) Road light replacement with LED Since 2009, the Government had been testing if LED lights were suitable for being used as road lights. The development of LED lights had become more mature in recent years with satisfactory results in terms of energy saving in comparison with conventional high pressure sodium lights while the prices had also dropped significantly. Hence, HyD opined that it was the appropriate time now to replace high pressure sodium lights with LED ones which, in addition to being more energy saving and relatively eco-friendly, were more durable and could help save on maintenance costs. Moreover, LED offered better colour rendering, in particular at night, in the sense that the original colours of objects were shown much better than they were by conventional high pressure sodium lights. HyD had already replaced the road lights at Wan Tau Kok Lane, Tai Po with LED lights and the lighting at the said site had improved after the LED replacement. (xix) Other minor works in Tai Po District Enhancement works at Kwong Fuk Road Roundabout had completed. Significant improvement was seen to the traffic at the said site after an additional traffic lane had been provided. Works to provide a bus bay on Ting Kok Road had also completed and traffic would no longer be obstructed when buses stopped at the station. Besides, pedestrian facilities had also been provided.
4. Mr. CHENG Chun-ping raised the following views:
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(i) Po Heung Bridge was currently the only vehicular bridge leading to Tai Po Market. Since many members of the public would go shopping at Tai Po Hui Market and with the completion of Po Heung Estate, traffic on Po Heung Bridge became very congested as a result. TPDC had been fighting for the construction of a vehicular bridge to connect Pak Shing Street and Tai Wo Estate for over a decade. The said vehicular bridge was of utmost importance to Tai Po residents and he hoped that HyD would continue to study the feasibility of this project. (ii) both the renowned Tsz Shan Monastery and Lung Mei Beach under construction were located on the Tai Mei Tuk section of Ting Kok Road, nonetheless, Ting Kok Road did not even have room for building a bus stop. During holidays, visitors would come to the said site for cycling which would exacerbate the congestion problem. He had mentioned the situation to the local councillor Dr. LAU Chee-sing and recommended that the existing cycle track be converted into a carriageway while the cycle track and jogging track be relocated to the waterfront. Since there was a mangrove forest at the said waterfront, he suggested that reference be made to the practices of other places where elevated walkway decks made of composite wood were built to serve as cycle track and jogging track, such that the site could be made a new attraction.
5. Mr. LI Kwok-ying said that he had fought since the second term DCs for the construction of a vehicular bridge next to Kwong Fuk Road footbridge. However, HyD had indicated at the last meeting of TPDC’s Traffic and Transport Committee that the said vehicular bridge would need to be three meters higher than other bridges across Lam Tsuen River. As the bridge floor would be elevated, a bend would be required to connect the vehicular bridge with the carriageway. Doing so would not only make the existing carriageway narrower, but also elevate the road to two-storey high. Moreover, no footway for use by pedestrians would be available on the vehicular bridge. He was of the view that HyD would need to explain to the public why it had come up with such a design. He hoped that HyD could “share people’s aspirations and concerns” and consider from the perspective of the genuine needs of people how traffic problems at the said site could be resolved.
6. Mr. KWAN Wing-yip raised the following views and questions:
(i) HyD staff had been very responsible and efficient in carrying out road maintenance or passenger lift works. (ii) following the population growth in Northeast New Territories, roads leading to urban areas became very congested during peak hours. Notwithstanding, no other road works were currently being planned apart from the Widening of Tolo Highway – Stage 2. By the time the said widening works completed, it might no longer be - 9 -
able to cope with the growing population and number of vehicles. Besides Tolo Highway, Tai Po residents travelling to the urban areas would primarily use the roads in Shatin. However, population and number of vehicles in Shatin had been on the rise too. Hence, residents in the entire New Territories East suffered because of the urban-bound traffic congestion. Many members of the public were of the view that construction of tunnels similar to Tai Lam Tunnel or new roads which made it possible for New Territories East resident to reach urban areas without passing through Shatin would help alleviate the burden on existing roads. He urged HyD to prepare well for the planning of future roads in New Territories East.
7. Dr. LAU Chee-sing raised the following views:
(i) during the past few months, there had been a number of traffic accidents and cases of congestion on Tolo Highway. According to the information he had collected, there had been a total of 13 traffic accidents and one vehicle breakdown which had taken place on Tolo Highway during the period between 1 and 24 October. In each case, traffic on the highway had been paralysed for approximately 30 minutes to an hour and Tai Po and the North District residents travelling to work had been badly affected, while traffic accidents on Tai Po Highway had also led to traffic congestions within Tai Po District. (ii) while there were Tuen Mun Road, Route 11 and Tuen Mun Western Bypass in New Territories West, Tolo Highway remained the only trunk road in New Territories East. There was thus an urgent need to provide a trunk road in New Territories East. Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point (“BCP”) would come into operation in end 2018 and many vehicles would then be attracted to access Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai BCP via Tolo Highway. It had also been mentioned in “Hong Kong 2030+: Towards a Planning Vision and Strategy Transcending 2030” (“2030+”) put forward by the Development Bureau (“DEVB”) earlier that a North South Corridor would need to be built. He opined that it was necessary to conduct studies earlier on the provision of a trunk road to cater for the needs of Tai Po and the North District residents. He hoped that HyD could relay the views to the policy bureaux concerned. (iii) asphalt surface of some roads needed resurfacing every five years. However, manhole covers had not been raised to the road surface level during the resurfacing works, leaving some of the manhole covers sunken for 20 to 30 years. When carrying out asphalt resurfacing, HyD should also raise the manhole covers to the level of normal road surface to make the roads smooth and even.
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(iv) engineers of Tai Po District Road Maintenance Division of HyD served Tai Po District dedicatedly.
8. Mr. Clement WOO raised the following views:
(i) while elaborating on “2030+” earlier, DEVB had made little mention of the urban-bound road and railway development from Tai Po and the North District. He opined that departments concerned should conduct research in this regard. (ii) as far as he understood, weekly inspection and maintenance operations were carried out for lifts installed under the UA Programme. HyD should inform members of the public in advance before lift service was suspended for maintenance and inspection. (iii) during the past summer, flooding had occurred in many pedestrian subways in Tai Po while the lift in subway NS69 had also been damaged by the flood. Flooding had been so severe that the 2.5-meter high subway had almost been submerged in water, thus posing a threat to the safety of pedestrians. HyD should put effort into improving drainage of subways. Besides, operation of the damaged lift had been suspended for almost two months as it took time to procure spare parts. He hoped that HyD could in the future enhance the lift repair and maintenance so that lift service would not have to be suspended for a long time should similar situations arise in future. (iv) after the provision of an additional lane at Kwong Fuk Road roundabout, traffic congestion problem at the said site had indeed been alleviated. Owing to its being one of the major hubs for traffic from Kowloon to Tai Po, most buses would entre Tai Po via the said site. DC Members concerned currently discussed how the road section in question could be further optimised. He hoped that HyD could keep this issue in view so as to bring further improvement to the traffic problems at the site.
9. Mr. LAU Yung-wai raised the following views and questions:
(i) HyD staff acted swiftly and made significant contribution to the road works in Tai Po District. (ii) it was necessary for HyD to improve traffic problems on Tolo Highway and to provide additional trunk roads in New Territories East. (iii) signage at some locations had become out of date, for instance, since a number of works had been done over the years at the location near Tai Po Jockey Club Clinic in the direction to Ting Kok Road, the clinic could no longer be accessed from there. Nevertheless, a blue sign remained present at the entrance indicating that - 11 -
motorists could entre. He enquired if HyD would regularly update signage which had become out of date due to changes in the surrounding environment, and how often it would review the signage, or if the signage would be updated only when HyD was notified. (iv) someone had been injured by a fallen road sign in Ching Ho Estate last month. He asked if HyD had taken any follow-up actions in connection with such incidents arising from dilapidation and disrepair. He recommended that site inspections and follow-ups be conducted at locations where signage had been erected for a specified period of time to prevent similar incidents from happening again. (v) apart from Lo Fai Road, where in Tai Po District were those Acacia confuse requiring replacement? (vi) HyD had recently put black pellets on trees in the district, which were known to be used to store information of trees. He enquired about the main function of the system concerned and whether it was a pilot scheme of certain new systems in the future. (vii) according to HyD statistics, 2 000 persons used subways NS153 and NS154 in Old Market and Serenity Constituency per hour. Owing to the high pedestrian flow, hygiene issues such as vomitus or dog excreta that had not be cleaned up were frequently found, causing bad smell in the area. There had been no follow-up until he himself called HyD. He requested that HyD step up regular cleansing of subways with high pedestrian flows (for instance, subways with a pedestrian flow of 1 000 persons per hour) instead of cleaning up only upon receipt of complaints, so as to ensure the cleanliness of subways to prevent any large-scale transmission of diseases. (viii) three lifts would be built under the Next Phase of the UA Programme in Tai Po District, with one of them being located next to subway NS154. In view of the pedestrian flow of the said subway’s being as high as 2 000 persons per hour, members of the public could benefit sooner if the works could commence as soon as possible. (ix) there were two MTR stations in Tai Po District, among which Tai Wo Station had a rather special design in the sense that the station divided Tai Wo Estate into two sides. When taking the north-bound exit, one would need to take the footbridge on the upper level to leave the station area, go downstairs via another footbridge to enter the shopping mall and then take a long and narrow escalator before finally reaching the ground level. The route was indeed long and circuitous. Tai Wo Station had since undergone numerous changes and coupled with the increasing number of residents, it began to become overloaded, in particular the south-bound exit where no passageway was available except a long and narrow escalator. In - 12 -
the event of ad-hoc incidents such as train service failure where passengers needed to be evacuated, collisions would occur when passengers all tried to shove their way through since there was only one passageway, rendering the situation dangerous. He urged HyD to communicate with MTRCL regarding the provision of an entrance or exit similar to those of Sheung Shui Station or University Station to save members of the public from having to walk through narrow and circuitous passageways when entering or leaving the station, so as to facilitate any large-scale evacuation of crowds in case of ad-hoc incidents. At the same time, space on the platforms could also be made better use of to reduce the time members of the public needed to enter or leave the station. Moreover, HyD could also consider providing access facilities at the south platform leading to Po Nga Court to help members of the public save time. (x) as regards the modification works of the blind spot at the pedestrian crossing near Serenity Park, he had earlier learned that HyD would replace the short planters with kerb planters. He requested that HyD follow up as soon as possible to save members of the public from the potential risks they were being exposed to currently.
10. Mr. YAM Man-chuen raised the following views and questions:
(i) HyD staff worked efficiently and with a great sense of responsibility. (ii) he supported HyD’s measure to replace road lights with LED and enquired if some road lights in Tai Po District had already been replaced with LED. Lighting of some roads with higher pedestrian flows in Tai Po District (such as the vicinity of Fu Heng Estate on Chung Nga Road and the section between the crossroads of Ting Kok Road and Tai Ping Industrial Centre was dim and HyD should improve the lighting at such locations by increasing the level of luminance or changing the colour temperature. As regards the road along Lam Tsuen River (from Tai Wo to Yuen Shin Park), many members of the public went there for jogging while a lot of cyclists took that route too, increasing the level of luminance of road lights at the said location would help reduce the number of accidents. (iii) the surface of the cycle track off Tai Po Mega Mall was rugged and uneven. There had been little improvement despite the repairs HyD had done in early years. Some cyclists had also indicated that the said road section was undulating and hoped that HyD would carry out remedial works. Besides, HyD should also repair and widen those cycle tracks that were used by relatively large number of visitors, for instance, the cycle track between Tolo Harbour and Tai Mei Tuk. (iv) some roadside kerbs in Tai Po District were overgrown with weeds which not only hindered the use of roads, but also facilitated the breeding of mosquitoes and insects. HyD had to step up cleansing and repair damaged kerbs in due course. - 13 -
(v) Hong Kong could take reference from foreign models in its railway development to allow two or more lines to share a track so as to facilitate the operation of some express trains which would skip certain stops. He enquired if the said operation mode would be feasible for new railway networks in the future (such as the new railways of Kwu Tung North and Lantau). (vi) provision of covers for pedestrian walkways was subject to too many restrictions (for instances, being located close to major stations, width and length of road’s being three meters and 400 meters respectively and so on), thus significantly limiting DC Members’ choice of locations for building covers. It was also unfair to residents in remote areas as remote areas often failed to meet the above requirements for the provision of covers for pedestrian walkways. If such restrictions could be reduced when launching similar programmes in the future, residents in remote areas would be able to benefit therefrom.
(vii) provision of shelter at transport interchanges often ended up getting nowhere as work in different areas was to be taken care of by different departments, which inevitably led to confusion. Such situation occurred in other instances too and he hoped that departments could enhance co-operation to minimise the occurrence of the said problem.
11. Mr. Francis YAM raised the following views and questions:
(i) HyD staff had been working closely with DC Members on matters concerning road works. (ii) New Territories currently relied primarily on Tolo Highway and four tunnels (i.e. Tate’s Cairn Tunnel, Lion Rock Tunnel, Route 8 and Shing Mun Tunnels) to access Kowloon. Traffic in Lion Rock Tunnel was badly affected by the ground subsidence incident on Waterloo Road today and a large number of vehicles had to take Tate’s Cairn Tunnel instead, causing serious congestions on Tate’s Cairn Tunnel’s connecting roads and some road sections in Ma On Shan and on Tolo Highway. Such scenario occurred from time to time, which not only caused delays to people’s journeys, but also had an impact on the public transport system as a whole (for instance, an increase in the number of passengers of earlier bus trips while that of later trips dropped). The Government might consider undertaking certain major works in Tai Po District such as building a tunnel to connect to Route 8 so that vehicles would not need to run on roads in Shatin, Racecourse, sewage treatment works and the vicinity of New Town Plaza. While Kwun Tong would be developed into a new core business district in the future, constructing in Ma On Shan a trunk road connecting to Kwun Tong would also perfect the road network in the said area. - 14 -
(iii) the existing road and railway networks in New Territories East were nearing their full capacity. With the development in New Territories North, population in areas such as Kwu Tung and Ma Shi Po would increase by hundreds of thousands. In addition, upon commissioning of the SCL, the number of cars of MTR trains would be reduced from 12 to nine. The passenger capacity could not be increased significantly even with an improved signalling system to make up for the loss in the number of train cars, whereas residents in Tai Po and the North District could not benefit from the new cross-harbour section. Besides, the NOL would connect to the West Rail at Sheung Shui and some of the East Rail passengers might take the West Rail Line instead while residents of New Territories West might also take the East Rail Line. Hence, the pressure on the East Rail Line could not necessarily be lessened. Therefore, departments concerned should consider with no delay constructing a new railway in New Territories North. (iv) the lift of footbridge NS132 was located at the stairway opening where there was relatively high pedestrian flow. Wheelchair users would need to go around a curve before they could enter the lift waiting area. Should there be any loss of control or accidents, wheelchairs might fall down the stairs. Hence, HyD should install safety facilities such as iron poles or railings at the stairway opening to ensure the safety of wheelchair users.
12. Mr. CHAN Cho-leung raised the following views:
(i) he commended HyD staff for their performance. (ii) he recommended that two tunnels be built, with one connecting Kowloon East with New Territories East and the other linking up New Territories East and West. Lam Kam Road near Lam Tsuen provided access to New Territories East and New Territories West. Since two sections of Lam Kam Road were steep, serious traffic accidents took place frequently at the said locations. Should New Territories East and New Territories West be linked up by a tunnel, traffic accidents occurring on the said road might be minimised. Besides, as the two steep road sections mentioned above were dangerous, it was therefore rather difficult to provide new bus routes at the said location. (iii) HyD had to send its staff to check regularly if road lights in rural areas had been covered by trees. (iv) ramps should be provided at the footbridges across the East Rail Line and Tai Wo Service Road West to allow members of the public to access the stations and bus stops without having to cross the road so as to minimise the occurrence of accidents. - 15 -
(v) he recommended that HyD make use of TPDC’s funding for District Minor Works projects to carry out the improvement works of pavement next to Lam Kam Road.
13. Mr. Rex LI indicated that there were many new buildings in the vicinity of Sai Sha Road and quite a lot of vehicles would go to Shatin and Ma On Shan via Sai Sha Road. However, those roads which had been built in the 1960s and 1970s were relatively narrow. He opined that departments concerned should consider widening them.
14. Mr. LO Hiu-fung raised the following views:
(i) the burden on Tolo Highway had been increasing in recent years. Traffic congestion on Tolo Highway during peak hours was severe, particularly at the junction leading to Tate’s Cairn Highway and on Tai Po Road (Sha Tin Section). Traffic would be brought to a standstill whenever there was a traffic accident at any of the said locations. Upon the completion of Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai BCP in 2018, it was anticipated that the number of cross-boundary vehicles would increase substantially. It had also been mentioned in related documents of “2030+” that there would be an increase of some 250 000 to 350 000 people in the population of New Territories North in the future. At the same time, to dovetail with the commissioning of SCL in 2019, the number of train cars would be reduced from 12 to nine. Coupled with the frequent signal failures of the East Rail Line, passengers would switch to travel to Kowloon by bus, thus further aggravating the pressure on Tolo Highway. (ii) the carriageway of Tai Po Road (Sha Tin Section) would be expanded from 2-lane to 3-lane and completion of the works concerned was expected to be in 2022. He enquired if any short to medium term measures were available to alleviate the impact on traffic during the construction period and whether departments concerned would implement any other road improvement measures such as building the North-South Transport Corridor as mentioned in“2030+”. In the short term, some bus routes might take Eagle’s Nest Tunnel instead so as to achieve a more balanced traffic distribution among the tunnels. (iii) after recovering ownership of Tate’s Cairn Tunnel in 2018, HyD should review the tolls of the said tunnel to divert vehicles so as to ease congestion in Lion Rock Tunnel. (iv) the problem of congestion on the road surface should also be addressed under the UA Programme. For instance, Tai Po Market Station had been constructed along the hillside, as a result only the other side could be used as the entrance and exit. At present, the road sections concerned were very crowded during rush hours in the morning, be it the access from Wan Tau Tong subway or along Elegance Garden to - 16 -
Tai Po Market Station. In addition, only one single-lane carriageway was available next to Uptown Plaza and vehicle-pedestrian conflicts were frequent. It was imperative for HyD to tackle the problem of congestion on the road surface.
15. Mr. LI Yiu-ban raised the following views:
(i) since the majority of trees at the roadside had been transplanted from elsewhere, the roots did not hold firmly into the soil while the crowns had grown too big that the roots could no longer withstand the weight, rendering them susceptible to becoming uprooted during the onslaught of typhoons. As a typhoon had hit Hong Kong earlier, a lot of trees had collapsed and caused obstruction to traffic. Departments concerned should inspect from March to May each year if the crowns of trees had to be pruned to minimise the damage which typhoons might bring forth. (ii) no large-scale mass transit system was available in Sai Kung District and Sai Sha Road and roads in the vicinity of Pak Sha Wan were as a result constantly congested, thus causing great disturbance to residents nearby. Besides, it was not easy to access the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and its vicinity by public transport and a large number of students could only get there by minibuses or buses. Railway projects currently underway would complete successively in the next five years. Departments concerned should plan for the new roads and railways which would become available later to meet future needs. If the Government could build an elevated light rail track to link Wu Kai Sha and Tsueng Kwan O MTR Stations via Sai Kung, not only could the traffic problems mentioned above be alleviated, the said link could also serve as a sight-seeing route. (iii) concurrent construction of a tunnel running through Ma On Shan when relocating Sha Tin Sewage Treatment Works to Nui Po Shan would be conducive to easing traffic congestion in Sai Kung.
16. Mr. CHAN Siu-kuen raised the following views:
(i) HyD staff performed their duties conscientiously and responsibly. (ii) Pak Shek Kok and its surrounding areas would accommodate some 12 000 households. Together with the Science Park and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, population of the said district would reach 90 000. He hoped that departments concerned would provide a railway station in the district and connect various housing estates, the Science Park and the Chinese University of Hong Kong by footbridges, such that not only congestion on the road surface could be alleviated, but carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles could also be reduced. Departments concerned could also follow the example of New Town Plaza to build - 17 -
a shopping mall beneath the railway station for the convenience of residents there. (iii) footbridges should be provided in densely populated areas to minimise congestion on road surface. (iv) there had recently been a lot of cases of highway littering by motorists, while many construction sites were alongside the highways that sands and stones were found everywhere. Windscreens of vehicles had been hit and damaged by such objects. HyD must step up its efforts in removing rubbish and sundry items from the roads.
17. Mr. AU Chun-wah raised the following views:
(i) be it in urban or rural areas, the works progress of HyD’s provision of road lights had been very slow. HyD should expedite the progress of such works. (ii) wires were found on some lampposts connecting to other lampposts. HyD indicated that it was required by the works and the wires would be removed as soon as practicable upon completion of the works. However, according to his observation, some of the wires had not been removed for an extended period of time and some even spanned across wide roads. He worried that in the event of accidents, the wires would fall onto vehicles. He asked HyD to explain the reasons for the said situation. (iii) stagnant water would easily accumulate at many pedestrian crossings possibly due to some design issues, causing inconvenience to pedestrians or leading to accidents when pedestrians tried to evade puddles. HyD should improve road design to prevent ponding of water at pedestrian crossings as far as practicable. (iv) fallen leaves always piled up at drains along the roads after the rain. Being flushed by the rain, leaves would become stuck to the roadside but nobody would remove them. HyD should pay more attention to the problem. (v) he had already pointed out years ago that long-term planning would need to be done in relation to the transportation needs arising from the development along Ting Kok Road, and had put forward improvement measures. However, departments concerned had at that time not accepted his views because of insufficient population or some other factors. As a result, not long after the widening works of Ting Kok Road had completed, it could no longer cope with the needs of members of the public. The Government should have more foresight while planning, or else it would not be in a position to keep abreast of the needs of the public. (vi) several lifts along Lam Tsuen River and Tai Po River reached rather low-lying areas. Departments concerned had in the past indicated that the lifts had been equipped with sensors and the lifts would go up to higher levels to prevent water damage when flooding was detected. Nevertheless, the said sensors had not - 18 -
functioned during the onslaught of a typhoon in Hong Kong earlier. He asked HyD to give an account. (vii) a small cover had been built for the exit of the lift next to Tai Po Centre to provide shading and protection from rain. There was a 30-centimeter gap between the said cover and the cover of the adjacent walkway constructed by Tai Po District Office. He had once enquired if the two covers in question could be linked up but departments concerned had invariably said that relevant works could not be carried out. He asked if HyD had resources available for conducting such works. (viii) Tolo Highway would soon reach capacity while there were on-going new development projects in Tai Po and Northeast New Territories. Notwithstanding, “2030+” had indicated that no research study on a new route linking Northeast New Territories and the urban areas would be carried out owing to insufficient population. Should the Government carry out studies only when the population in Northeast New Territories became large enough, the works concerned might take at least two to three decades to complete. Hence, he was of the view that the Government must be farsighted while conducting road planning or it would fall short of keeping tabs on the needs of the public. He hoped that HyD would relay the opinions to policy bureaux and departments concerned. (ix) the number of train cars of the East Rail Line would decrease from 12 to nine in the future. Even operating at more intensive frequencies, the passenger capacity could only be enhanced slightly. In view of the fact that there continued to be new development projects in Northeast New Territories while railways would soon reach capacity, departments concerned should construct new routes linking Northeast New Territories and the urban areas as quickly as possible.
18. Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai raised the following views:
(i) HyD front-line staff worked efficiently. (ii) MTRCL had indicated that despite the future decrease in the number of East Rail train cars from 12 to nine, enhancement of the railway signal system that took place at the same time would facilitate more frequent train service whereas the overall number of train cars would increase too. However, MTRCL included in its calculation those first-class compartments which people travelling to work would normally not use. After deducting those first-class compartments, the number of train cars would drop all the same in the end despite the railway signal system enhancement. At the same time, Northeast New Territories continued to develop, HyD would need to discuss with MTRCL measures to address the problems.
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(iii) an entrance/exit was available each in the concourse and at the footbridge at Tai Wo MTR Station. Residents of Tai Wo Estate Phase 1 and Tai Po Old Market would need to take the long and narrow escalator before accessing the station through the entrance/exit at the footbridge. Owing to the high pedestrian flow, the escalator was overloaded. He recommended that additional exits/entrances be provided at suitable locations at Tai Wo Station. He could offer assistance if necessary. (iv) he enquired about the implementation of road light replacement with LED in Tai Po District. At some locations in the district such as Lam Tsuen River, despite the distribution of street lamps’ being relatively dense, the level of luminance remained nonetheless inadequate. Coupled with the shade of trees, some members of the public were concerned about order and safety issues at the said site. He requested that HyD expedite the replacement of road lights and street lamps with LED in the district to improve illumination at the location mentioned above.
19. Mr. Patrick TANG raised the following views:
(i) the contractor, consultant company and resident engineers of the widening works of Fanling Highway had very positive and professional working attitude. HyD regional engineers had also offered a lot of professional advice on district works projects. (ii) HyD expected that the average daily person-times using the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai BCP would be as many as 20 000 to 30 000 by 2030. Since the said site currently only accommodated two-lane-two-way traffic to connect to Fanling Section and Tolo Highway, he enquired what measures HyD had to deal with the additional vehicular flow in the future. (iii) he had held meetings with Rural Committee (“RC”) Members and DC Members concerned in connection with the construction works of the bus-bus interchange at Ho Ka Yuen and put forward a lot of opinions. However, no response had been received so far while the works had already commenced. He requested that HyD reply as to whether or not their views had been accepted. (iv) Transport Department (“TD”) turned down certain road projects often on the grounds that vehicular and passenger flows were insufficient. Nonetheless, statistics provided by TD had not taken into account additional vehicular and passenger flows upon completion of works in the future. He requested that HyD provide professional advice on the projected vehicular and passenger flows to TD to facilitate the implementation of several proposed road works projects.
20. Ms. WONG Pik-kiu raised the following views:
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(i) in Tai Po, there was currently no direct bus or minibus route going to Tuen Mun. HyD could consider setting up a large car park at a suitable location where members of the public could go by car and then change to MTR for Tuen Mun in the future. (ii) problems had already emerged with some lifts constructed under the UA Programme. She requested that HyD report to TPDC regularly the operational problems and maintenance of those lifts in question. (iii) floor tiles on the road section between the lift at Block 21 of Tai Po Centre and Wong Siu Ching Family Medicine Centre had been in use for 30 years. She urged HyD to expedite the replacement.
21. Mr. Daniel CHUNG gave a consolidated response to Members’ view and questions as follows:
(i) he would respond to road and railway development matters at the meeting, while HyD would record other opinions Members put forward, such as service and maintenance works, and follow up after the meeting. (ii) both TD and HyD were under the Transport and Housing Bureau. As far as division of work was concerned, road planning management fell under the purview of the TD which would chart out the development direction in accordance with development needs, whereas HyD would be responsible for the implementation which included works such as engineering design and fund application. As regards railway development, HyD would take care of planning. Generally speaking, HyD would implement relevant works through MTRCL. (iii) HyD planned to apply for funding approval within this legislative session to carry out together with TD a study on the overall road and railway development. The said study would examine how transport infrastructure could coordinate with future planning development and distribution of population. HyD hoped to officially commence the study in 2018 after securing the funding concerned within this legislative session. (iv) in addition to HyD, CEDD was also responsible for implementing road works projects (e.g. Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai BCP project). At present, one of the bottlenecks along the route from Tai Po to the urban areas was Tai Po Road (Sha Tin Section). CEDD would apply for funding within this legislative session to widen the road section concerned. Upon completion of the works, traffic problems at the said bottleneck should be solved. As regards the overall traffic situation in New Territories East, it was in the long run necessary to explore future road development direction via the aforementioned study.
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(v) future development of transport infrastructure had also been mentioned in “2030+”. HyD would review the issue from an overall perspective in the aforementioned study and the needs of Tai Po District would not be overlooked. (vi) as to whether widening or improvement works would in the future be required for Ting Kok Road again, HyD would maintain close liaison with TD. Should TD decide to carry out certain works projects, HyD would make the best effort to facilitate the implementation. (vii) HyD had conducted several studies in relation to the construction of Kwong Fuk vehicular bridge. However, as the drainage problem of Lam Tsuen River remained unsolved, HyD was discussing with the Drainage Services Department with a view to identifying a solution which could minimise the height of the bridge while addressing the drainage requirements at the same time. HyD understood that residents in Tai Po District had a very keen demand for the said vehicular bridge. Given the incident that the subway next to Lam Tsuen River had flooded during the onslaught of a typhoon in August this year, it was obvious that drainage problems of rivers concerned had to be considered indeed when carrying out the Kwong Fuk vehicular bridge project. Should any solution to the problem be identified, HyD would report to TPDC as soon as possible. (viii) lifts at subways were equipped with flood sensors, yet, two lifts had nonetheless been damaged during the onslaught of a typhoon earlier. The sensor of one of the damaged lifts had detected the flood and automatically raised the lift to the ground level, the lift was nevertheless damaged as the water level had been higher than the ground level. The other lift had been damaged because some sundry items had been flushed into the lift and stopped the doors from closing completely. As a result, the lift could not go up and became damaged by the water. HyD would learn from this experience and explore improvement measures.
22. The Chairman thanked Mr. Daniel CHUNG for attending the meeting to brief Members on the work of HyD and to answer questions put forward by Members.
II. Co-location arrangement of the Hong Kong Section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (TPDC Paper Nos. 83/2017, 84/2017, 85/2017 and 86/2017)
23. The Chairman advised that according to the decision made by TPDC at the last meeting and upon the request Mr. Francis YAM had made in Paper No. 83/2017, the Secretariat had already extended written invitations to the Department of Justice, the Secretary for Transport and Housing and the Secretary for Security or their representatives to attend this meeting. However, all three - 22 - departments had indicated that they were unable to send any representatives to the meeting but had nonetheless provided written replies, details of which were available in Paper Nos. 85/2017 and 86/2017.
24. Mr. Francis YAM raised the following views:
(i) he expressed his strong dissatisfaction with the above departments’ failure to send representative to this meeting and opined that the Administration did not respect TPDC. (ii) the meeting aimed to elucidate the issue and TPDC had in the past invited various departments to elaborate on different policies. The co-location arrangement (“co-location”) of the Hong Kong Section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (“XRL”) touched upon issues such as livelihood, law and order, management and so on. Before questions in these aspects were answered, it would indeed be difficult to decide as to whether or not to support the co-location arrangement. (iii) the Government had not consulted LegCo and DCs on co-location. Prior to the Government’s proposal to legislate under Article 23 of the Basic Law back then, the then Secretary for Security had lobbied for public acceptance of the legislation. While the co-location arrangement this time also raised doubts and controversies, departments concerned had not sent any representatives to DC meetings, which was indeed unacceptable and showed that the Government was unwilling to heed public opinions. Mr. XI Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, had once said that “careful and thorough investigation had to be conducted on the reports of leading cadres. Investigation should continue on the verification that had been referred to as inadequate in previous reports. We must continue to investigate and listen to the voices of local cadres, identify deficiencies and rectify them. When facing the masses, we must have expectations and demands, and examine.” Departments should heed public opinions and not evade such voices and views.
25. Mr. KWAN Wing-yip raised the following views:
(i) he expressed anger at the failure of Transport and Housing Bureau (“THB”) in sending any representatives to the meeting. THB was not made up of the Secretary for Transport and Housing (“STH”) only and other officers could have been sent to attend the meeting on his behalf. Moreover, apart from naming the reason for its failure to attend the meeting, THB had not enclosed in its reply any brief introduction to co-location, relevant documents or information of websites, Members had to search such data themselves. That THB had repeatedly refused to - 23 -
attend meetings set a bad precedent and other departments might use the same reason to decline invitations to DC meetings. He considered a reprimand necessary. (ii) staff of regional offices performed well in dealing with issues in the respective districts but what STH had done caused grievances among the people, who might vent out their discontent on personnel at regional offices. This was utterly unfair to the staff. At the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held recently, the country, being led by the leaders, developed towards a new era whereas the practice of THB in this case was utterly bureaucratic and irresponsible, which was a sort of retrogression, at which he expressed his dismay and resentment, and condemned THB for dereliction of duty.
26. Mr. AU Chun-wah expressed grave dissatisfaction about the failure of departments concerned to send representatives to the meeting. He pointed out that it was indeed difficult to explain to TPDC or the public why the three departments mentioned above were unable to send someone to answer Members’ question at this meeting despite the fact that they had over a hundred management staff. It was blatant disrespect both to the representatives of public opinions and to Hong Kong people. TPDC had invited the departments concerned to attend the meetings held in September and November. He suggested that a third invitation be extended in the hope that departments concerned would attend the meeting in January to listen to views.
27. Mr. LAU Yung-wai raised that the Government had claimed that it wished to listen to the views of the people on co-location, but refused for two consecutive times to send representatives to TPDC meetings, which was a complete disregard for the opinions of some 300 000 residents in Tai Po. He doubted if the Government had been sincere about consulting the public, and censured the STH.
28. Mr. YAM Man-chuen strongly condemned STH for having repeatedly refused to send representatives to TPDC meetings, thus making the elaboration on ancillary measures and implementation of the co-location to Members impossible. He continued that while the new term Chief Executive had said upon assumption of office that she hoped to resolve dissension within society, what the Government had so far been doing was to set down predetermined conditions instead of conducting public consultation for various policies, for instances the West Kowloon Hong Kong Palace Museum, universal retirement protection and co-location. As a result, the co-location issue had torn the society apart. No respect had been shown for public opinions.
29. Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai considered THB’s refusal to send representatives to gauge Members’ views at DC meetings a lack of respect for TPDC and public opinions. He also raised that STH had said before that XRL was relaxing, time-saving, convenient and better than travelling by plane. However, media had found out while looking up relevant information that the Hong Kong - 24 -
Airport Authority (“AA”) had anticipated in the Hong Kong International Airport Master Plan 2030, published in June 2011, that travelling by plane from Hong Kong to five cities, namely, Xi’an, Kunming, Beijing, Chongqing and Chengdu would be faster than XRL by two to six hours. What THB and AA had said contradicted each other and he hoped that THB could tell which version was correct.
30. Mr. Clement WOO said that the co-location arrangement had already been brewing and discussed for some time in the society. He had also participated in related forums, read relevant pamphlets and watched the APIs. He was of the view that it would be more desirable for THB to send representatives to DC meetings instead of responding in writing. Given the need of legislation for the co-location in the future, he hoped that departments concerned would then offer more detailed elaboration and conduct consultation on the specific arrangements of co-location.
31. Mr. LI Yiu-ban indicated that he supported the co-location arrangement. However, THB’s refusal to send representatives to the meeting ran counter to the objectives the Chief Executive had avowed, namely, to “boost ties with the people” and “Let’s talk”. He expressed his disappointment.
32. Mr. Eric TAM raised the following views:
(i) there were many surveys on the co-location arrangement in the society conducted by organisations of various backgrounds, of which the findings generally indicated that over half of the respondents supported the arrangement, reflecting a high level of acceptance among members of the public for co-location. He continued that co-location would be implemented stringently and with great transparency, while members of the public were also clear about which parts of the XRL West Kowloon Station would fall within the jurisdiction of the Mainland. It was indeed unnecessary to worry too much. (ii) co-location had long been implemented at Shenzhen Bay Port and operating smoothly all along, what would be done currently was only to extend the relevant measures to the XRL West Kowloon Station. (iii) it would be more desirable if departments concerned could pay visits to the districts to listen to the views of the local communities. He believed that there would be various platforms for members of the public and DC Members to express their views on the co-location arrangement in the future. With the commissioning of the XRL’s being imminent, further delays in whatever forms would be of no help either to enhancing people’s understanding of co-location or to perfecting the co-location arrangement.
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33. Mr. CHENG Chun-ping supported the issuance of censure to departments concerned for not sending representatives to attend meetings.
34. Ms. WONG Pik-kiu raised the following views:
(i) THB representatives had to attend LegCo meetings on co-location and were too busy to take part in DC meetings. Hence, she did not agree to the issuance of censure but nevertheless hoped that THB would elaborate to Members on the co-location at other meetings deemed suitable. (ii) should STH be required to attend meetings of all 18 DCs territory-wide, the works might be delayed, thus resulting in XRL’s failure to commission in the third quarter of 2018.
35. Mr. Francis YAM said that had STH been unable to attend meetings himself, he could have sent other colleagues to the meetings on his behalf. If the departments concerned respected the views of the public, they should attend meetings to listen to people’s opinions. He did not agree that the co-location arrangement had long been discussed in the society as suggested by a Member since the Government had not announced the said arrangement until 25 July this year.
36. Mr. KWAN Wing-yip moved an impromptu motion as follows: “Tai Po District Council (“TPDC”) condemned in the name of the President of the People’s Republic of China Mr. XI Jinping the Department of Justice, the Transport and Housing Bureau and the Security Bureau of the HKSAR Government for dereliction of duty in refusing to send representatives to TPDC meetings to elaborate on the co-location arrangement and answer Members’ questions.” The motion was seconded by Mr. AU Chun-wah, Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai, Mr. LAU Yung-wai and Mr. YAM Man-chuen.
37. Mr. CHENG Chun-ping considered the issuance of censure in the name of President XI Jinping unreasonable.
38. Mr. Ken YU was of the view that it was preposterous to move a motion in the name of another person without his or her prior consent.
39. Ms. WONG Pik-kiu opined that the wording of the motion which Mr. KWAN Wing-yip moved was utterly absurd. She considered it unreasonable to do something in the name of another person without his or her prior consent. She cited an example that after she had photographed Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai earlier, the latter claimed that he had the personality right of the photograph concerned.
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40. Dr. LAU Chee-sing raised that the above motion had not been moved 10 clear working days in advance of the meeting, while it was also inappropriate to do something in the name of another person without his or her prior consent.
41. The Chairman advised that Members had expressed their views adequately on the absence of the three departments concerned at TPDC meetings. The majority of Members considered what the departments had done inappropriate. TPDC might consider writing to the departments concerned or passing the motion to express its views. He used discretion to accept the motion moved by Mr. KWAN Wing-yip. Other Members might amend or vote against the motion should they consider the content or the wording of the motion inappropriate.
42. Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai considered the aforesaid remarks Ms. WONG Pik-kiu had made on personality right a false accusation and demanded that Ms. WONG Pik-kiu retract such remarks.
43. Ms. WONG Pik-kiu raised that Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai could move a censure motion at any Committees for discussion 10 clear working days in advance in accordance with the Standing Orders, should he be unhappy about her remarks.
44. Mr. YAM Man-chuen approved of the Chairman’s approach in accepting impromptu motions and opined that Chairmen of other Committees should take reference from this instance.
45. The Chairman advised that Chairmen had the power to consider in the light of the actual circumstances whether or not to accept impromptu motions. That he himself accepted this impromptu motion did not mean that what other Committee Chairmen had done was wrong.
46. Dr. LAU Chee-sing said he was disappointed that the three departments had not sent any representative to the meetings. He supported TPDC’s issuance of letters to the departments concerned to express disappointment and regret, and recommended that departments concerned be invited to the meeting in January to discuss the issue.
47. Mr. LAU Yung-wai opined that if STH had been unable to attend the meetings, he should have sent someone to do so on his behalf. However, STH had indicated in his reply that none of THB personnel could attend the meetings. Hence, he was of the view that THB should be condemned.
48. Mr. KWAN Wing-yip indicated that he was serious about the aforesaid motion he had moved, and was of the view that censuring officials for dereliction of duty was consistent with President XI Jinping’s idea of improving the bureaucracy. He continued that priests also prayed in the name of Jesus, so there was nothing wrong about moving a motion in the name of President XI Jinping. - 27 -
49. The Chairman recommended that a vote be taken on Mr. KWAN Wing-yip’s motion first and then matters regarding the issuance of letters to the three departments be dealt with afterwards.
50. The Chairman asked Members to vote on the motion moved by Mr. KWAN Wing-yip by open ballot and the results were as follows:
For: 6 votes Mr. AU Chun-wah, Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai, Mr. KWAN Wing-yip, Mr. LAU Yung-wai, Mr. Francis YAM and Mr. YAM Man-chuen
Against: 13 votes Mr. CHAN Cho-leung, Mr. CHAN Siu-kuen, Mr. CHENG Chun-ping, Dr. LAU Chee-sing, Mr. LI Kwok-ying, Mr. Rex LI, Mr. LI Yiu-ban, Mr. LO Hiu-fung, Mr. Eric TAM, Mr. Patrick TANG, Ms. WONG Pik-kiu, Mr. Clement WOO and Mr. Ken YU
Abstain: 0 vote Total: 19 votes
51. The Chairman announced that the motion moved by Mr. KWAN Wing-yip was negative.
52. As regards writing to the three departments concerned, Members’ views were as follows:
(i) Mr. LI Kwok-ying pointed out that TPDC should at this meeting deal with the motion to support or oppose the co-location arrangement. He opined that departments concerned could be invited to the next DC meeting in connection with this agenda to heed views, but there should be no more discussion. (ii) Mr. LI Yiu-ban considered it not necessary for departments concerned to attend the next meeting if the agenda was dealt with at this meeting. (iii) Mr. Francis YAM indicated that he was willing to withdraw the motion he had moved. Should departments concerned be able to attend the next meeting, discussion could then be resumed. (iv) Mr. AU Chun-wah enquired if copies would also be sent to the Secretary of Justice and the Secretary for Security in addition to writing to STH.
53. The Chairman enquired if Members agreed to TPDC’s issuance of letters to the departments concerned to express disappointment and regret about the departments’ failure in sending representatives to attend the meetings, and to authorise the Chairman to handle related matters. The letter would be issued to STH while copies would be sent to the Secretary of Justice and the Secretary for Security. - 28 -
54. Members agreed to the arrangements mentioned above.
55. The Chairman advised that he would then handle the motions moved by Mr. Francis YAM and Mr. Clement WOO in Paper Nos. 83/2017 and 84/2017 respectively.
56. Mr. Francis YAM said that since departments concerned would be invited to attend the next meeting, he was willing to withdraw his motion and defer the discussion to the next meeting.
57. The Chairman said that since Mr. Francis YAM withdrew his motion, he would not handle it.
58. Mr. Clement WOO introduced Paper No. 84/2017 and read out his motion as follows: “Supporting the implementation of co-location arrangement at the Hong Kong section of XRL”. The motion was seconded by Mr. Eric TAM.
59. Mr. Francis YAM said that as mover of the motion, Mr. Clement WOO should be well-versed in the co-location arrangement. He asked Mr. Clement WOO about details of the said arrangement such as the number of trains running from XRL West Kowloon Station to Guangzhou, how long it would take to reach Guangzhou, and how long it would take to travel from Guangzhou South Railway Station to downtown Guangzhou and so on.
60. The Chairman expressed reservation about the remarks Mr. Francis YAM had just made. He opined that Members should direct their questions about government policies at the officials concerned. Members might choose to support, oppose or hold other opinions after the officials responded. He was of the view that Mr. Clement WOO would not need to answer Mr. Francis YAM’s enquiries.
61. Mr. LI Yiu-ban raised the following views:
(i) XRL would not be able to perform its function if the co-location arrangement could not be implemented. XRL patronage in the Mainland had very strong growth potential and could absorb passengers of short and medium-haul flights. He cited an example that if a passenger had to go to a location near Xi’an, he might need to go to Xi’an by plane and then change to other means of transport in order to reach his destination. However, he might be able to reach his destination directly by XRL without any interchange at Xi’an airport for other transport services, thus saving travelling time. (ii) XRL could facilitate passengers’ travels within a short period of time between Hong Kong and many cities in the Mainland beyond Guangzhou and Shenzhen, such as Beijing and Shanghai, which would be of great help to Hong Kong’s external traffic - 29 -
connection and enhance Hong Kong’s potential of becoming the city where multinational corporations would set up their Asia-Pacific headquarters.
62. Mr. AU Chun-wah raised the following views:
(i) since departments concerned had not sent any representatives to elaborate on the arrangement, it was impossible for Members to have issues clarified. Should Members support the co-location arrangement despite the presence of doubts and queries, it would indeed be difficult to explain to the public. Hence, he could not support the motion moved by Mr. Clement WOO. (ii) the co-location arrangement was entirely different from the practice at Shenzhen Bay Port as in the case of the latter, clearance procedures were performed by Hong Kong law enforcement officers in the mainland section, whereas in the case of the former, law enforcement officers from the Mainland would take enforcement actions in Hong Kong which would arouse concerns among Hong Kong people as to whether doing so would give rise to other problems.
63. Mr. YAM Man-chuen raised the following views:
(i) “dual operations” implemented at Guangzhou–Kowloon Through Train, Beijing– Kowloon Through Train and Intercity Through Train had been effective, hence, the co-location arrangement was not a must. (ii) since the co-location arrangement was a major issue, he opined that a referendum should be held to decide on its implementation. (iii) he would not accept the co-location arrangement before the departments concerned elaborated on it.
64. Mr. LAU Yung-wai raised the following views:
(i) when citing the results of opinion polls, Members should also provide relevant data or such results of opinion polls would be meaningless. (ii) the premise on which the motion moved by Mr. Clement WOO had been based was the content of the first paragraph of Paper No. 84/2017, i.e. “…we urge the Government to step up its efforts to explain to the public specific operation arrangement of the ‘co-location’ and continue to gauge views from members of the public on ways to perfect the said arrangement.” He pointed out that what the Government did now was not to send any representatives to DC meetings to explain to the public specific operation arrangement of the ‘co-location’ and continue to - 30 -
gauge views from members of the public, so he did not see how he could support the Government’s implementation of the co-location.
65. Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai raised that two motions had been withdrawn at the last meeting owing to the absence of relevant officials at the meeting. Since no officials attended this meeting either, he was of the view that the motion should be withdrawn too and discussion of which deferred to subsequent meetings where officials would be present so as to avoid Members questioning one another.
66. The Chairman advised that the two Members who had moved a motion at the last meeting both indicated the decision to withdraw their motions which as a result had not been dealt with at the last meeting. As regards this meeting, Mr. Clement WOO had said that he would not withdraw his motion, so handling of the motion had to continue.
67. Mr. CHAN Cho-leung raised the following views:
(i) people whom he had contacted all supported the co-location arrangement. (ii) it would be difficult to achieve the target of “half-hour living sphere” without the implementation of co-location arrangement.
68. Mr. LAU Yung-wai raised the following views:
(i) he hoped that Mr. Clement WOO could provide a detailed and reasonable reply to his questions regarding the above motion. (ii) people he knew held divided views on the co-location arrangement. (iii) co-location should not be forcibly implemented without consultation for the sake of facilitating XRL commissioning.
69. Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai said that two motions had been withdrawn at the last meeting owing to the absence of relevant officials at the meeting. Likewise, no relevant official was present at this meeting either. Yet, some Members demanded that the motion be carried forcibly, which in his opinion would set a bad precedent. Officials might think that it was not necessary to respect the views of DCs. He expressed his disappointment.
70. Mr. Eric TAM said that there had been surveys on the co-location arrangement done by many organisations in the society which revealed general public support. For instances, a survey conducted by Lingnan University showed that 54% of the respondents were willing to travel by XRL for which co-location would be implemented, while a survey of the University of Hong Kong commissioned by Mingpao Daily also revealed that 53% of the respondents supported the - 31 -
co-location arrangement. Besides, the approval rate (41.5%) recorded in the survey conducted by the Democratic Party was lower than the disapproval rate (42.8%) by about 1% only. He opined that some Members had selectively listened to public opinions whereas pro-establishment Members acted in accordance with mainstream public opinions to support the co-location arrangement.
71. The Chairman asked Members to vote on the motion moved by Mr. Clement WOO by open ballot and the results were as follows:
For: 14 votes Mr. CHAN Cho-leung, Mr. CHAN Siu-kuen, Mr. CHENG Chun-ping, Mr. CHENG Chun-wo, Dr. LAU Chee-sing, Mr. LI Kwok-ying, Mr. Rex LI, Mr. LI Yiu-ban, Mr. LO Hiu-fung, Mr. Eric TAM, Mr. Patrick TANG, Ms. WONG Pik-kiu, Mr. Clement WOO and Mr. Ken YU
Against: 6 votes Mr. AU Chun-wah, Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai, Mr. KWAN Wing-yip, Mr. LAU Yung-wai, Mr. Francis YAM and Mr. YAM Man-chuen
Abstain: 0 vote Total: 20 votes
72. The Chairman announced that the motion moved by Mr. Clement WOO was carried.
73. Mr. AU Chun-wah enquired if departments concerned would be invited to attend the next meeting.
74. The Chairman said that since the attendance of departments concerned at the next meeting could not change Members’ decision on the above motion today, departments concerned would therefore not be invited to attend the next TPDC meeting.
(Post-meeting note: The said letter had been issued to the Secretary for Transport and Housing, the Secretary of Justice and the Secretary for Security on 8 December 2017.)
III. Confirmation of the minutes of the special meeting of the TPDC in 2017 on 2 August 2017 (TPDC Paper No. 87/2017)
75. The Chairman advised that the Secretariat had received proposed amendments to the minutes of the captioned meeting (see Paper No. 87/2017). The said minutes were confirmed after having been updated with the amendments. - 32 -
I V. Confirmation of the minutes of the 5th meeting of the TPDC in 2017 on 7 September 2017 (TPDC Paper No. 88/2017)
76. Neither had the Secretariat received any proposed amendments to the minutes of the captioned meeting, nor did Members propose any amendments to the said minutes at this meeting. The said minutes were confirmed without amendment.
V. Signature Projects of Tai Po District – Progress Report on“Improving the Tourist Facilities at Lam Tsuen Wishing Square” (TPDC Paper Nos. 89/2017 and 89a/2017)
77. The Chairman requested that Members declare interests where necessary in respect of the matters being dealt with.
78. The Secretary reported that pursuant to Order 48(9) of the TPDC Standing Orders, a Member should declare interests if he found he had direct personal interests or pecuniary interests in the matters being dealt with. The Secretariat had compiled a declaration form based on the information collected. The form, which had already been tabled for Members’ reference (see Annex 1 to meeting minutes), set out the links between Members and the partnering organisations of the project “Improving the Tourist Facilities at Lam Tsuen Wishing Square” (“Wishing Square Project”), namely, Tai Po Lam Tsuen Heung Educational Development Company Limited (“LTHED Co. Ltd.”) and Lam Tsuen Wishing Square Development Limited. He asked Members to check the information contained in the declaration form and make revisions or give supplementary information where necessary. He continued that Members should also declare interests if they had any direct personal interests, pecuniary interests or other interests in the matters being dealt with at this meeting.
79. Members declared interests according to the information in the declaration form.
80. The Chairman advised that he had declared his links with LTHED Co. Ltd., the partnering organisation of the Wishing Square Project. Pursuant to Order 48(11) of TPDC Standing Orders, he asked the Vice-chairman to determine if he could speak in relation to this agenda item or take part in voting, as well as whether he could remain in or had to withdraw from the meeting.
81. Ms. WONG Pik-kiu indicated that despite the links which the Chairman had with LTHED Co. Ltd., no pecuniary or other interests were involved. She recommended that he would not need to withdraw from the discussion of this agenda item. Nevertheless, he should remain silent and abstain from related resolution or voting. - 33 -
82. Members concurred with the said arrangement.
83. The Chairman asked Members to read the declaration form which had been placed on the table. Substantive positions were marked in yellow and non-substantive ones green.
84. As regards those Members who had declared interests, the Secretary introduced the suggestions that had been made by the Chairman as follows:
(i) if Members held a substantive position in the organisations concerned without involving pecuniary interest or other interests, they were not required to withdraw from the meeting when the matters were being discussed, but should remain silent during the discussion and abstain from resolution or voting. The Chairman could ask them to provide supplementary information if necessary.
(ii) if they held a non-substantive position in the said organisations without involving pecuniary interest or other interests, they could take part in the related discussion and resolution.
85. Members agreed to the above approach.
86. The Chairman welcomed Mr. POON Man-hong, Cody, Project Manager (Works) of Tai Po District Office (“TPDO”) to the meeting.
87. The Chairman reminded those two Members who held a substantive position in the project’s partnering organisations or related organisations (i.e. Mr. LI Kwok-ying and himself) to remain silent during the discussion of the Wishing Square Project and abstain from resolution or voting. However, the said Members could provide supplementary information when requested.
88. The Chairman continued that LTHED Co. Ltd. had issued a letter earlier indicating that it would no longer participate in the Signature Project Scheme (“SPS”). The said letter had already been tabled for Members’ reference.
89. Ms. Andy LUI recapped Paper No. 89/2017.
90. Ms. WONG Pik-kiu said that she had repeatedly attended Legislative Council (“LegCo”) meetings to answer questions in relation to the Wishing Square Project in the capacity of the Chairman of the Working Group on Signature Projects of Tai Po District. In the end, no funding for the Project had been approved by the Finance Committee of LegCo. Hence, she expressed her understanding for the partnering organisation’s decision to withdraw from the SPS.
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91. Mr. CHAN Cho-leung raised that as an advisor to Lam Tsuen Wishing Square Development Limited, he expressed his understanding for LTHED Co. Ltd.’s decision to withdraw from the SPS.
92. Mr. LAU Yung-wai raised the following questions:
(i) SPS of Tai Po District had set aside funding earlier for implementing the Wishing Square Project. He enquired if the advance work carried out under the said project had made use of the funding concerned. (ii) whether the Government had to make compensation for any losses as a result of stopping the Wishing Square Project.
93. Ms. Iris LEE advised that the advance work under the Wishing Square Project had made use neither of the SPS grant of $100 million nor the $7 million raised from the community. Besides, the Government would not need to make any compensation for any losses as a result of stopping the “Wishing Square Project”.
94. Mr. LAU Yung-wai enquired about the amount involved in the advance work of the Wishing Square Project and the source of funding.
95. Ms. Andy LUI advised that the cost of the advance work of the Wishing Square Project had been borne by the Home Affairs Department (“HAD”). She would obtain information concerned from HAD as far as possible and provide such information to Members.
96. Members agreed not to pursue the Wishing Square Project anymore.
97. Ms. Andy LUI said that “Establishment of an Arts Centre by Retrofitting Tai Po Government Secondary School” (“Arts Centre Project”) was a highlight in the district, to which Tai Po residents had been looking fervently forward. It had also been mentioned in the last two Policy Addresses of the Government. However, there were certain works under the project which needed to be done had so far not been carried out due to funding constraints. Hence, she recommended that the funding of approximately $15 million originally under the Wishing Square Project be transferred to the Arts Centre Project such that the works required could be carried out.
98. Ms. Iris LEE said that if Members agreed to transfer some $15 million to the Arts Centre Project, the said sum would be used for carrying out several works such as refurbishment of the external walls and signboards, provision of signage in the arts centre and installation for display of promotion banners on the external walls, refurbishment of the basketball court floor and provision of landscape greening facilities and Wi-Fi system and so on to meet the needs of the arts centre. It was also hoped that more members of the public and arts practitioners would be attracted to use the arts centre. - 35 -
99. Mr. Francis YAM was of the view that a consultation would have to be conducted anew to allow the community to discuss how the remaining funding from discontinuing the Wishing Square Project should be used. Tai Po District might take reference from the practice of Kwai Tsing District and Southern District to use the funding for implementation of medical and rehabilitation services rather than carrying out additional works for the arts centre. To ensure effective use of the said funding, he opined that it would be worth spending time to conduct a consultation and heed public opinions. It was not necessary to rush into any decision at this meeting.
100. Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai was of the opinion that a consultation should be conducted afresh as to how the funding concerned should be spent. According to the standards of the Planning Department, there was a shortfall of one clinic in Tai Po District. Moreover, there was a serious shortage of healthcare resources and ancillary facilities in the district. Therefore, he recommended that reference be taken from the practice of Kwai Tsing District and Southern District to use the funding for healthcare services. Besides, he raised that TPDO had not furnished any details about the proposed transfer of funding for Members’ consideration, hence, no approval should be given hastily at this meeting.
101. The Chairman indicated that the Government had already reserved a one-off grant of $100 million for each district to implement one to two SPS projects. After thorough discussion and consultation, TPDC had decided to implement the Wishing Square Project and Arts Centre Project, each taking up about half of the said grant. After the commencement of the SPS, funds had been insufficient for the two projects and warm-hearted people from the community had donated several million dollars to provide additional facilities for the Arts Centre Project such that the arts centre could be upgraded to a higher level. He was of the view that transferring some $15 million from the remaining funding to the Arts Centre Project after the Wishing Square Project was discontinued could enhance the facilities of the arts centre and raise the level of the entire project, while it could be discussed further as to how the rest of the remaining funding should be spent.
102. Ms. Andy LUI made the following supplementary remarks:
(i) the Arts Centre Project had received a total of $8 million donated from the community, among which $1 million had been donations in kind including furniture and appliances. (ii) without additional funding, basically only refurbishment works could be carried out for Tai Po Government Secondary School under the Arts Centre Project, in which case the said school could not be upgraded to the level of an arts centre. (iii) she hoped that the project could complete by 2019. Should Members agree to the said transfer of funding, the authority concerned would still need to discuss the - 36 -
details with Hong Kong Arts Development Council, HAD and so on. As such, she hoped that the proposed transfer of funding to the Arts Centre Project mentioned above could be endorsed at this meeting. Should the proposal not be discussed until the next DC meeting held two months later, commencement of the works would be delayed by at least two months. (iv) as regards the rest of the remaining funding, follow-up discussion could be held at the Working Group on Signature Projects of Tai Po District such that Tai Po residents could benefit from the funding.
103. Mr. CHENG Chun-ping indicated that he agreed both to the above-mentioned proposal to transfer funding to the Arts Centre Project and to the suggestion that the Working Group on Signature Projects of Tai Po District would discuss further how the rest of the remaining funding should be used.
104. Mr. Clement WOO said that Tai Po residents looked forward to the completion of the arts centre. Should the proposal to transfer some $15 million to the Arts Centre Project be discussed further, completion of works would be delayed. Hence, he supported endorsing the said proposal at this meeting.
105. Mr. Patrick TANG opined that enhancing the quality of the arts centre would boost its usage while making it an iconic building in Tai Po. He therefore supported the transfer of some $15 million to the Arts Centre Project.
106. Mr. AU Chun-wah raised the following views and questions:
(i) should TPDC agree to transfer the funding under the Wishing Square Project to the Arts Centre Project, whether the proposal would need to be submitted to LegCo for approval. (ii) he enquired for the implementation of which SPS projects the remaining funding of approximately $30 million could be used after the transfer of some $15 million to the Arts Centre Project. He was of the view that the funding under the Wishing Square Project should be transferred in full to fund another more worthwhile project should there be any. (iii) he requested that TPDO provide more detailed information regarding the proposed transfer of funding for Members’ consideration. (iv) to prevent funding applications from being filibustered, government departments should provide more detailed information to minimise controversies.
107. Mr. LAU Yung-wai raised the following views and questions: - 37 -
(i) he preferred conducting a consultation afresh on the remaining funding from discontinuing the Wishing Square Project to show members of the public the openness and transparency of the Government. (ii) he enquired if the proposed transfer of funding would need to be approved by the LegCo and whether or not the entire planning of the Arts Centre Project would be affected by the newly added items such that the works would be delayed. (iii) he was worried that after transferring the funding of some $15 million to the Arts Centre Project, it would not be easy to spend the remaining $30 million or so on implementing any suitable SPS project. (iv) he agreed that the community’s cultural and arts level should be enhanced, but opined that if certain items had not been included initially in the Arts Centre Project, it was an indication that such items had no urgency. Hence, there was no imminent need to include such items in the scope of works now. In addition, he opined that quotations should be provided and priorities be set for the proposed items to facilitate Members’ consideration of the proposed transfer of funding instead of hastily endorsing the said proposal amid so many uncertainties.
108. Mr. CHAN Cho-leung said that he had been in touch with young people in the district who all looked fervently forward to the completion of the arts centre, so he had understanding for TPDO’s attempt to have the proposed transfer of part of the funding under the Wishing Square Project to the Arts Centre Project endorsed at this meeting. Besides, he supported using part of the funding to publicise the Arts Centre Project and suggested that a notice board be erected near the arts centre to report to the public the works progress.
109. Mr. Francis YAM raised the following views and questions:
(i) there should be no dispute about the Arts Centre Project. Yet, he was of the view that as regards how funding should be used, there should be more community involvement and more public views should be solicited so as to show that public opinion was respected. No data was available for discussion at this meeting, rendering it difficult for Members to explain to their voters. (ii) it would take no more than two months to wait for the proposed transfer of funding to be discussed at the next DC meeting, the delay would not be really that long. (iii) should part of the funding be spent on provision of healthcare services, the continuity of such a project would not be a problem. He cited an example that the Community Care Fund had in the past provided funding for the provision of healthcare services. Despite the fact that the Community Care Fund later on could - 38 -
not sponsor the said services anymore, such services were subsequently incorporated into the regular assistance programme of the Social Welfare Department (“SWD”). (iv) he enquired if the funding transfer would need to be approved by the LegCo and if yes, the LegCo would also ask if the proposed funding transfer was supported by members of the public in the district. The works would be even more significantly delayed should no consultation be carried out until then.
110. Mr. YAM Man-chuen raised that Members had the obligation to scrutinise closely the allocation of public money. However, no data and information regarding the proposed funding transfer concerned had been made available at this DC meeting. In view of this, he opined that TPDC should not attempt to save the works from a two-month delay at the expense of the opportunity to scrutinise the funding approval.
111. Ms. WONG Pik-kiu said that provision of healthcare or social welfare services had been recommended in Paper No. 89a/2017 without giving any concrete plans and statistics, making it difficult for her to support the recommendations concerned.
112. Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai indicated that Paper No. 89a/2017 had only suggested that consideration be given to the use of funding for the provision of healthcare or social welfare services without seeking support from TPDC. However, TPDO requested despite the absence of information and data that some $15 million be transferred to the Arts Centre Project. Should TPDC agree to the funding transfer, it would be severely criticised by the society. He was also worried that after transferring the funding of some $15 million to the Arts Centre Project, whether or not the remaining funding would be sufficient for implementing any suitable SPS project.
113. Mr. CHAN Siu-kuen said that he had visited the site of the Arts Centre Project and opined that the original funding amount might fall short of covering the cost of converting the school into an arts centre. Therefore, he supported granting the said project additional funding.
114. Dr. LAU Chee-sing supported the enhancement of the arts centre’s facilities and complementary amenities. He was of the view that recommendations put forward in Paper No. 89a/2017 should be referred to the Working Group on Signature Projects of Tai Po District for discussion.
115. Ms. Andy LUI responded as follows:
(i) funding for the Arts Centre Project had already been endorsed by LegCo while amendments to the funding amount could be approved by the Financial Services Branch. TPDO would apply for an increase in the funding for the Arts Centre - 39 -
Project in accordance with the established procedures. (ii) she had taken reference from SPS projects of other Districts and considered $30 million sufficient for implementing a SPS project. (iii) Tai Po residents had all along supported the Arts Centre Project, hence, she hoped that this DC meeting would support the transfer of the approximately $15 million funding originally under the Wishing Square Project to the Arts Centre Project to avoid delay in works.
116. Mr. AU Chun-wah raised that owing to the absence of a list of works proposed to be carried out by using the approximately $15 million funding, he recommended that a vote be taken to decide if the said funding of some $15 million should be transferred to the Arts Centre Project.
117. The Chairman asked if Members would need to declare interests in relation to the proposal to transfer some $15 million to the Arts Centre Project.
118. No Member declared interests.
119. The Chairman asked Members to vote on the proposal to transfer the $15 million funding originally under the Wishing Square Project to the Arts Centre Project by open ballot and the results were as follows:
For: 13 votes Mr. CHAN Cho-leung, Mr. CHAN Siu-kuen, Mr. CHENG Chun-ping, Dr. LAU Chee-sing, Mr. LI Kwok-ying, Mr. Rex LI, Mr. LI Yiu-ban, Mr. LO Hiu-fung, Mr. Eric TAM, Mr. Patrick TANG, Ms. WONG Pik-kiu, Mr. Clement WOO and Mr. Ken YU
Against: 0 vote
Abstain: 7 votes Mr. AU Chun-wah, Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai, Mr. KWAN Wing-yip, Mr. LAU Yung-wai, Mr. Francis YAM, Mr. YAM Man-chuen and Mr. CHENG Chun-wo Total: 20 votes
120. The Chairman announced that the above proposal to transfer $15 million to the Arts Centre Project was carried.
121. The Chairman left the meeting at 3:15 p.m. Ms. WONG Pik-kiu (hereafter referred to as “the Acting Chairman”) took the chair.
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122. The Acting Chairman declared a 10-minute suspension of the meeting.
123. The meeting resumed after the suspension.
VI. Trimming of trees at the junction between Kwong Fuk Road and Wan Tau Kok Lane (TPDC Paper No. 90/2017)
124. The Acting Chairman advised that the Secretariat had received a letter from Mr. LAU Yung-wai on 17 October this year requesting that the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (“LCSD”) submit an investigation report on the death of some egrets caused by the trimming of trees on Kwong Fuk Road near Wan Tau Kok Lane.
125. Mr. AU Chun-wah introduced Paper No. 90/2017 on behalf of Mr. LAU Yung-wai.
126. Mr. TAM Hung-kong said that LCSD had completed the investigation of the tree-trimming incident in Tai Po and was currently following up on related matters. It would give a clear account at an appropriate time.
127. Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai was disappointed that LCSD had failed to submit the investigation report thus far, and enquired about the estimated date when LCSD could submit the report.
128. Mr. TAM Hung-kong responded that upon completion of the investigation report, LCSD had to seek advice from other government departments and was therefore unable to name an exact date for submission in the meantime. It would nonetheless give an account as soon as practicable.
129. Mr. LAU Yung-wai pointed out that LCSD had once indicated that the report could be submitted in the third quarter of 2017. However, it was November already and he hoped that LCSD would release the investigation report to facilitate public understanding of the situation and to report and discuss at TPDC meetings with a view to preventing similar incidents from happening again. He said that it had been reported in the media that the said investigation report had already been completed, and asked why LCSD had submitted it to other departments for review, as doing so might arouse public concern that deletions could be made to the contents of the report.
130. Mr. TAM Hung-kong advised that LCSD had already noted the above and would follow up as quickly as possible on the release of the investigation report concerned
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(Post-meeting note: The investigation report of the tree-trimming incident in Tai Po was released on 1 December. LCSD had carried out and would implement a total of 12 short-, medium- and long-term improvement and remedial measures to prevent the re-occurrence of similar incidents.)
131. The Acting Chairman recommended that this agenda item be followed up by the Agriculture, Fisheries, Commerce, Industries, Tourism and Recreation Affairs Committee (“ATRC”) if LCSD could finish the investigation report before the ATRC meeting on 10 November. Otherwise, it would be followed up at the next TPDC meeting.
132. Members agreed to the said arrangement.
VII. Demand for the Government to review the education and social benefit systems and to increase resources to deal with suicide problems (TPDC Paper Nos. 91/2017 and 92/2017)
133. The Acting Chairman advised that the Secretariat had received on 18 October a letter from Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai demanding that the Government review the education and social benefit systems and increase resources to deal with suicide problems.
134. Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai introduced Paper No. 91/2017.
135. Ms. Tracy LAM responded as follows:
(i) the Education Bureau (“EDB”) was highly concerned about the mental health and suicide problems of students and felt deeply sorry and sad about cases of student suicides earlier. According to the analysis of the Committee on Prevention of Student Suicide (“CPSS”), suicidal behaviours of students were caused by the interaction of multiple complicated factors including mental health issues, psychological concerns, family relationship and adjustment problems, peer relationship problems, school adjustment and academic stress. The EDB was of the view that simply drawing an equal sign between suicidal behaviours and single factors should be avoided, so as to save important factors affecting students from being overlooked, resulting in the failure to take timely intervention and corresponding measures, while many opportunities to help students and effectively intervene were missed. (ii) CPSS had released its Final Report in November last year and EDB, together with related departments, had actively followed up on the recommendations made in the said report and formulated feasible measures and promotion efforts to step up - 42 -
support for schools, teachers, parents and students, as well as help schools identify in time and support those students who had a risk of committing suicide. Government departments would spare no efforts in implementing the recommendations of the report. Besides, the Chief Executive had directed the Secretary for Labour and Welfare to co-ordinate an inter-departmental working group to review and co-ordinate the follow-up work of relevant departments based on the CPSS report to further discuss new measures to prevent young people from committing suicide. EDB was among the members of the said working group which would commence work in November. (iii) as regards Members’ concern about the amount of homework for students, EDB had all along emphasised that quality was more important than quantity. Meaningful homework had a positive impact on students’ learning, which would not only help them consolidate what they had learned in class and stimulate thinking, but also encourage students to develop proactive self-motivated learning and cultivate an interest to learn. EDB stressed that the amount of homework should not be excessive and had issued the Guidelines on Homework and Tests in Schools earlier which recommended that schools coordinate the daily amount of homework in accordance with school context and the needs of students, and try to arrange time within lessons as far as possible for students to complete part of their homework under teachers’ guidance. At present, primary schools took various measures such as new or extended homework lessons, “no-homework day” once a week or diversified types of homework with a view to reducing the amount of written assignments and the pressure on students caused by homework, so as to allow students sufficient time for reading, doing physical exercises, rests, pursuing personal interests and developing good relationship with family members and friends to facilitate their healthy physical and psychological growth. (iv) EDB expressed grave concern about the unnecessary and excessive drilling some schools conducted for their students in relation to the Territory-wide System Assessment (“TSA”), thus placing undue pressure on teachers and students. EDB would urge the schools via various channels including notices and regular contact with schools to formulate suitable homework policy, seek views from parents and teachers and regularly review to ensure that the design and arrangement of homework could suit the abilities, interests and needs of the students. (v) academic value-added information served as one of the reference data for schools to carry out self-evaluation. EDB provided such information to the schools with a view to helping them gain from the value-added perspective a grasp of the academic performance of students and review their teaching and learning effectiveness in various domains and subjects in the secondary school stage. Schools should use this information together with other school-based data to obtain a clearer and more - 43 -
comprehensive understanding of students’ academic performance. Such academic value-added information was released on the school and subject levels while performance of individual students was definitely not involved. Schools should avoid selectively releasing such value-added information or using the student performance information for publicity purpose so as to prevent unnecessary pressure from being placed on the public, students or teachers. (vi) as regards guidance service in primary schools, EDB had continuously optimised the guidance service and progressively improved the manpower ratio and funding models. Primary schools which had opted for Student Guidance Service (“SGS”) Grant might procure student guidance service from non-government organizations (“NGOs”) or directly appoint full-time or part-time student guidance personnel to further enhance SGS. Starting from the 2012/13 school year, all public sector primary schools were provided a top-up student guidance service grant. As far as the qualification requirements for student guidance personnel were concerned, EDB set out clear guidelines stipulating that guidance personnel had to be registered social workers, registered teachers with counselling and/or teaching experience, or professionals with equivalent qualifications and experience. As regards the remuneration of the guidance personnel, EDB requested that schools take reference from the pay scale it had formulated for comparable ranks in accordance with their qualifications, experience and so on. When procuring such services, schools were required to conduct competitive quotations or tender exercises regularly to select suitable operators or organisations in accordance with the principle of open and fair competition. The above-mentioned requirements had been set with reference to the Corruption Prevention Guide complied by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (“ICAC”). Schools might enter into service contracts of longer duration with service organisations according to their school-based needs, such that the organisations and guidance personnel could provide services to the schools on an on-going basis. EDB would continue to keep in view schools’ demand for guidance services and review from time to time resources provided to schools according to factors such as policy priorities and public affordability. (vii) to enhance mental health of students, EDB and Department of Health had in the 2016/17 school year launched the “Joyful@School” Campaign (“Campaign”) in all primary and secondary schools territory-wide to further promote in schools the three key messages of the Campaign, namely, “Sharing”, “Mind”, and “Enjoyment”, with a view to enhancing students’ awareness and understanding of mental health, raising their awareness of help-seeking, reducing the stigma associated with help-seeking behaviour and strengthening their ability to cope with adversity. The Campaign would continue in the 2017/18 school year.
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(viii) to facilitate cross-sector collaboration and encourage more NGOs and tertiary institutions to form partnerships with schools, EDB had already launched suitable activities relating to the promotion of mental health. The refinement measures for mini applications introduced in April this year raised the grant ceiling from $150,000 to $200,000, while the quota for collaborative mini applications between schools and NGOs or tertiary institutions under the Campaign had also been increased. EDB encouraged schools to continue organising activities relating to the Campaign to promote mental health. (ix) EDB was deeply concerned about recent cases of student suicide that had occurred in Tai Po. EDB and Kwai Chung Hospital had held on 25 October 2017 a seminar on the prevention of self-harm and suicide of students and encouraged secondary schools in Tai Po District to take part. Besides, Tai Po District School Development Section would work together with Tai Po District Primary School Heads Association and Tai Po & North District Early Childhood Education (ECE) Principal Association to organise on 1 December the Tai Po District Primary School cum Kindergarten Teachers’ Development Day, in which some 1 300 primary school and kindergarten teachers in the District would take part. To help teachers in the District get a better understanding of students’ emotions and improve communication with parents, the said activity had invited Heep Hong Society to elaborate on matters relating to students’ emotions while educational psychologists had also been invited to explain how to identify conditions of students. EDB was of the view that family education was of great importance and would therefore include the communication with parents as one of the topics of the speech. (x) EDB hoped that with the efforts of and cooperation among various parties, the number of student suicide cases would keep declining.
136. Mr. YAM Mun-ho responded as follows:
(i) SWD was also very much concerned about suicide and mental health problems of students, and had introduced a number of related measures. In addition to the provision of stationing school social workers in every secondary school, SWD had also funded the Suicide Crisis Intervention Centre of the Samaritan Befrienders Hong Kong to provide various professional services such as, taking account of young people’s habit to surf on the internet, setting up an online forum, email and internet chatroom in the hope of identifying and reaching out early to internet users with the thought of committing suicide. (ii) SWD had also sponsored the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups to set up the “Youthline” Hotline with a view to reaching out via telephone to children and youth in high risk situations and to providing counselling and referral services. - 45 -
(iii) as far as the provision of additional funding was concerned, the policy of “one school social worker for each secondary school” had been implemented since the 2000/01 academic year. By providing recurrent subvention to 34 NGOs, each of the 464 secondary schools territory-wide was provided with a stationing school social worker with the aim of offering focused support to young people still studying in schools. SWD had since September 2011 put in additional resources to increase the number of social workers by 20% in secondary schools, creating a total of 96 new posts for school social workers, i.e. 0.2 new social worker post per secondary school. Under the lump-sum grant arrangement, organisations could make flexible use of such resources and increase the number of social workers according to the situation of individual schools. In the 2016/17 academic year, there were 561 school social workers in total territory-wide who not only worked closely with counselling teachers in schools, but also offered help via counselling and other activities to students with academic, emotional or social problems. Moreover, they also worked with other service units in the District such as integrated youth services centres or integrated family service centres via the organisations to which they belonged, in the hope that counselling, referrals and various activities would help students understand and handle pressure as well as strengthen their ability to cope with adversity, while enhancing teachers and parents’ understanding of students’ emotional and suicide problems to identify at an early stage young people with emotional problems or thoughts of committing suicide, so that they could know how to seek help. (iv) SWD Tai Po and North District Office (“Office”) was also very concerned about youth suicide problems and developmental needs, and promoted each year through district partnership programmes the messages of positive thinking and cherishing life and encouraged young people to develop their interests and strengths. Besides, in response to views from local community, the Office had joined several NGOs and cross-sector local personalities in the District to form the “Working Group on Support for Youth in Coping with Adversity”(Working Group) to make youth emotional health issues a common concern for the community. (v) the Working Group’s three key areas of work for the year 2017/2018 were namely, enhancing the work on life education to develop young people’s abilities in facing up to adversity, providing the opportunity and platform for young people to give play to their potentials, and strengthening young people’s ties with the community. The Working Group would encourage through various activities and competitions young people and parents to take a positive attitude towards adversity and difficulties in daily life.
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137. The Acting Chairman advised that Mr. Clement WOO had submitted a letter on behalf of eight Mutual Aid Committees (“MACs”) of Kwong Fuk Estate in relation to this agenda item. She asked Mr. Clement WOO to introduce the said letter.
138. Mr. Clement WOO introduced the letter (see Annex 2 to meeting minutes).
139. Mr. Francis YAM opined that departments concerned had to review the stationing school social worker arrangement. Under the outsourcing system of stationing school social workers, schools had to look for NGOs every one to two years to provide stationing school social worker service. However, cases might not be resolved in one to two years and omissions or oversights might occur when the new and incumbent organisations and social workers were busy with their handover. In addition, the selection principle of “the lowest bidder wins” in the tendering process might also result in ancillary hardware’s being inadequate. He recommended that stationing school social workers be included among resources for which schools would receive recurrent funding, such that schools could hire their own school social workers to truly achieve the objective of having one social worker for each school. The turnover of school social workers could be minimised so that they could continuously keep track of the students’ situation and to prevent students from having any suicidal rumination in the lack of timely counselling or follow up.
140. Mr. AU Chun-wah raised that not only students, but also teachers had to bear a lot of pressures. In face of various tasks such as school administration, lessons and extra-curricular activities, teachers were unable to devote more time to care for students. Besides, owing to the need to implement integrated education, teachers were required to put in additional time with individual students and might unintentionally overlook the needs of other students. He agreed that all kinds of measures should be taken to tackle the problem of student suicide, nonetheless, departments concerned should address the problem at source and increasing the height of railings along corridors of housing estates alone would have little effect. He continued that departments concerned should examine and identify the source of pressures students were facing and carefully consider ways to solve the problems, such as adjusting the number and workload of teachers and social workers and modify the curriculum content so as to reduce the pressures which students and teachers had to bear and to make it possible for teachers to care for students beyond the classroom setting.
141. Mr. CHOW Yuen-wai enquired if the existing arrangement of student guidance personnel could be institutionalised, or whether dedicated guidance personnel could be arranged in schools, for whom the salary standards and qualification framework would be formulated so as to lessen the workload of stationing school social workers. In addition, he enquired if increasing the height of railings along corridors of housing estates would contravene the Fire Services Ordinance.
142. Mr. Eric TAM raised the following views: - 47 -
(i) it required both hardware and software to tackle the suicide problem. As far as hardware was concerned, increasing the height of railings along corridors of housing estates or installing safety nets might help make people give up the idea of committing suicide. (ii) students spent long hours in schools each day and teachers or social workers should be able to detect should students have any emotional problems. Schools should flexibly deploy teachers and social workers to minimise their administrative work pressure such that they could have time to detect the problems of students. (iii) one of the reasons accounting for the high turnover rate of stationing school social workers was the poor career prospects. Once they had gained some years of experience while working in schools, the stationing school social workers would switch to NGOs to look for better career prospects. He considered such situation undesirable and recommended that the outsourcing system of stationing school social workers be improved such as extending the contract duration between schools and NGOs providing stationing school social worker service, so that schools would not need to keep changing their stationing school social workers.
143. Mrs. CHIU TSE Shuk-yin responded as follows:
(i) after the student suicide incident at Kwong Fuk Estate, she had immediately asked her colleagues to study the viability of optimising the design of the Twin Tower public rental housing (“PRH”) (i.e. the public housing residential block design being referred to in the letter from MACs of Kwong Fuk Estate). At present, the height of railings at the central void of Twin Tower PRH blocks in Kwong Fuk Estate was 1.2 metres, which was already higher than the 1.1-metre safety standard. The suggestion of the MACs to increase the height of the railings might have an impact on the overall structure and appearance, thus rendering it unsuitable. As regards the suggestion to remove the pillars from the railings to prevent people from using the pillars as a step to climb over the railings, she said that the pillars had been installed to reinforce the structure of the railings along the corridor on each floor and could therefore not be removed. (ii) regarding Members’ suggestion to increase the height of the railings, she said that doing so would make the inner court of the entire building become like a cage and increase the sense of pressure of the space. (iii) as far as the suggestion to install safety nets was concerned, the Housing Department (“HD”) had conducted information collection and feasibility study, and had made reference to the safety net facility at Dragon Centre. However, it was of the view that safety nets could not ensure safety completely. In addition, Twin - 48 -
Tower PRH blocks were in general 24-storey buildings, when installing safety nets, the loading capacities and the floor on which the safety nets should be installed had to be taken into consideration. After study, HD considered the installation of safety nets infeasible both technically and design-wise. (iv) in spite of the suggestions to increase the height of corridor railings and to install safety nets’ being impracticable, HD could nonetheless take the soft approach to enhance its service such as putting up “No Climbing” signs at the corridors which might help prevent unfortunate incidents from happening. Besides, HD had been in close liaison with SWD in their day-to-day work. Should HD colleagues detect any problems during their daily contact with residents, they could make immediate referrals as appropriate to SWD for follow-up. HD also hoped that residents in need could receive professional psychological and emotional counselling services through family support and referral services in the district.
(v) some Members had mentioned that there had been outsiders who had entered the housing estate and caused some of the incidents. She had already requested the management company to step up patrols and strengthen control at entrances to prevent as far as practicable outsiders from entering the housing estate to commit suicide.
144. Mr. Allan CHAN advised that works such as those to increase the height of railings might have some deterrent effect, but could not necessarily help make people give up the thought of committing suicide. He opined that the key to solve the problem was to tackle it at source. Apart from examining the feasibility of optimising the existing facilities, services of social welfare agencies and voluntary organisations should also be enhanced. Should problems or needs be identified, referrals should be made with no delay to facilitate the provision of timely assistance. HD would continue to follow up on the problem concerned together with the Estate Management Advisory Committee and provide assistance as appropriate.
145. Mr. Clement WOO opined that increasing the height of railings along corridors would be beneficial in a number of ways as many children now climbed and played on the railings and pipes along the corridors of Twin Tower PRH blocks, which was very dangerous. Moreover, the corridors were rather narrow which allowed no more than two persons to pass through concurrently. With the height of the railings’ being merely 1.2 metres, if one of the two persons concurrently passing through the corridor was carrying a baby, untoward incidents would be likely to occur should there be any collision between them. He hoped that HD would consider taking improvement measures to prevent accidents from happening.
146. Dr. LAU Chee-sing recommended that plastic boards be mounted onto the railings to prevent children from using the railings’ iron bars as a step to cross the railings. - 49 -
147. Mr. Patrick TANG raised the following views:
(i) increasing the height of railings would not affect the building structure, while in doing so, it was hoped that not only people could be prevented from committing suicide, but accidents could also be prevented where babies being carried fell across the railings onto the ground as a result of accidental collisions. (ii) EDB should progressively enhance the education system to reduce the study pressure on students.
148. The Acting Chairman said that Members had already expressed the opinions of residents and MACs, on which she requested departments concerned keep following up.
VIII. Matters arising from the minutes of the 5th meeting of the TPDC in 2017 on 7 September 2017
(I) Nomination of Co-opted Members of the TPDC Committees in 2018 and 2019 (TPDC Paper No. 93/2017 (Revised))
149. The Secretary introduced Paper No. 93/2017 (Revised).
150. 150. Members endorsed the list of Co-opted Members of the TPDC Committees in 2018 and 2019.
IX. District Management Committee Report to the TPDC (TPDC Paper No. 94/2017)
151. Members noted the contents of the report.
X. Reports of the TPDC Committees and Working Group (TPDC Paper No. 95/2017)
Agriculture, Fisheries, Commerce, Industries, Tourism and Recreation Affairs Committee
152. The Agriculture, Fisheries, Commerce, Industries, Tourism and Recreation Affairs Committee (“ATRC”) had held its fifth meeting of this year on 15 September 2017. Members noted the contents of the report. - 50 -
District Facilities Management Committee
153. The District Facilities Management Committee (“DFMC”) had held its fifth meeting of this year on 14 September 2017. Members noted the contents of the report.
Environment, Housing and Works Committee
154. The Environment, Housing and Works Committee (“EHWC”) had held its fifth meeting of this year on 13 September 2017. Members noted the contents of the report.
Social Services Committee
155. The Social Services Committee (“SSC”) had held its fifth meeting of this year on 13 September 2017. Members noted the contents of the report.
Traffic and Transport Committee
156. The Traffic and Transport Committee (“TTC”) had held its fifth meeting of this year on 15 September 2017. Members noted the contents of the report.
Working Group on Duty Visit
157. The Working Group on Duty Visit had held its third meeting of this year on 17 October 2017. Members noted the contents of the report.
XI. Proposed plan for TPDC duty visits and extending the term of the Working Group (TPDC Paper No. 96/2017)
158. The Secretary introduced Paper No. 96/2017. He continued that the Working Group on Duty Visit (“Working Group”) was currently a non-standing working group of which the term would end on 31 December this year. In view of the fact that the Working Group was still required to carry out duty visit work, it was therefore recommended that the Working Group be switched to become one of a standing nature with effect from 1 January 2018. Besides, Home Affairs Department had contacted the Secretariat earlier in relation to tours organised by DC - 51 -
Members and he would take this opportunity to remind Members that licensed travel agencies should be commissioned when organising tours and participants should be reminded to take out comprehensive travel insurances.
159. Mr. CHAN Cho-leung suggested that when finalising the details of duty visit itineraries in the future, reasons for visiting each item be listed more specifically so that the purposes of TPDC duty visits could be made easier for the public to understand.
160. Members endorsed the outline of the proposed duty visit to Hangzhou and Xiangshan Fishing Port in Zhejiang contained in Paper No. 96/2017, and agreed to switch the Working Group to become one of a standing nature with effect from 1 January 2018.
161. Mr. CHAN Cho-leung nominated Ms. WONG Pik-kiu as the Chairman of the standing Working Group on Duty Visit and the nomination was seconded by Mr. CHAN Siu-kuen and Mr. Eric TAM. Ms. WONG Pik-kiu accepted the nomination.
162. Since there was no other nomination, Ms. WONG Pik-kiu was elected Chairman of the standing Working Group on Duty Visit.
163. The Acting Chairman recommended that the Working Group continue to use the existing terms of reference and list of members and authorised the Chairman of the Working Group, the proponent of the duty visit to Hangzhou and Xiangshan Fishing Port in Zhejiang Mr. CHAN Cho-leung and the Secretariat to finalise the details of the activity.
164. Members agreed to the recommendation mentioned above in paragraph 163.
XII. Amendments to the Standing Orders of the TPDC (TPDC Paper No. 97/2017)
165. The Secretary introduced Paper No. 97/2017.
166. Members endorsed the amendments to the Standing Orders of TPDC in accordance with the said Paper.
167. The Acting Chairman requested that Members obtain where necessary the amended registration forms on personal interests from the Secretariat after the meeting and return the completed forms to the Secretariat as soon as possible.
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XIII. Amendments to the TPDC Funds Allocation Budget 2017/18 (TPDC Paper No. 98/2017)
168. The Secretary introduced Paper No. 98/2017. He added that except for the two items, namely, “Employment of additional staff dedicated to discharge DC duties” and “Mid-Autumn Festival”, remaining funds were available from some of the other items. The Secretariat welcomed Members to put forward proposals for community involvement projects.
169. Mr. LAU Yung-wai said that TPDC had granted $400,000 for a Mid-Autumn Festival activity earlier. However, the amount that had been granted under “Mid-Autumn Festival” as currently shown in the said Paper was $445,000. He enquired about the reason for such discrepancy between the amounts in question.
170. Ms. Trazy LEE advised that two activities were under the item “Mid-Autumn Festival”, with one of them being an activity held by Sai Kung North Rural Committee which had been granted $45,000. Since the amount was under $100,000, the fund application of the said activity had been vetted and approved by ATRC. Hence, the total amount of fund allocation under the item “Mid-Autumn Festival” was $445,000.
171. Members endorsed the proposed amendments to the funds allocation contained in Paper No. 98/2017.
X I V. Applications for DC Funds (TPDC Paper No. 99/2017)
172. The Acting Chairman welcomed Miss LO Wai-yi, Jenny, Liaison Officer of TPDO to the meeting for the discussion of this agenda item.
173. The Acting Chairman requested that Members declare interests where necessary in respect of the funding applications submitted to TPDC for vetting.
174. The Secretary reported that pursuant to Orders 48(9) and 48(10) of the TPDC Standing Orders, a Member should declare interests prior to handling an application for DC Funds if he found he had direct personal interests, pecuniary interests or other interests in an application for DC Funds under consideration, or had links with the benefited party or the potential benefited party. He advised that the Secretariat had compiled a declaration form based on the information collected. The form set out the links between Members and the hosting/partnering/co-hosting organisations concerned, and had already been tabled for Members’ reference (see Annex 3 to - 53 - meeting minutes). He asked Members to check the information contained in the declaration form and make revisions or give supplementary information where necessary. He continued that in addition to any links with the hosting/partnering/co-hosting organisations of activities, Members should also declare interests if they had any direct personal interests, pecuniary interests or other interests in the applications for DC Funds to be examined at this meeting.
175. Members declared interests according to the information in the declaration form.
176. The Acting Chairman indicated that she had declared her links with the hosting or co-hosting organisations of “Tai Po Feast for the Elderly 2018” and “Chinese New Year Calligraphy, Painting and Photography Exhibition cum Art Fair Carnival 2018”. Pursuant to Order 48(11) of TPDC Standing Orders, she asked those Members who had not declared interests in accordance with Order 48(9) of TPDC Standing Orders to determine if she could speak in relation to the fund applications of the said activities or take part in voting, as well as whether she could remain in or had to withdraw from the meeting.
177. Mr. Eric TAM indicated that despite the links which the Acting Chairman had with the hosting or co-hosting organisations of “Tai Po Feast for the Elderly 2018” and “Chinese New Year Calligraphy, Painting and Photography Exhibition cum Art Fair Carnival 2018”, no pecuniary or other interests were involved. He recommended that the Acting Chairman would not need to withdraw from the discussion of the fund applications concerned. Nevertheless, she should remain silent and abstain from resolution or voting of the fund applications in question.
178. Members concurred with the said arrangement.
179. As regards those Members who had declared interests, the Secretary introduced the suggestions which the Chairman had made as follows:
(i) if Members held a substantive position in the hosting/partnering/co-hosting organisations concerned without involving pecuniary interest or other interests, they were not required to withdraw from the meeting at which the fund applications concerned were being examined, but should remain silent during the discussion and abstain from resolution or voting. The Chairman could request that they provide supplementary information if necessary. (ii) if they held a non-substantive position in the hosting/partnering/co-hosting organisations concerned without involving pecuniary interest or other interests, they could take part in the discussion and resolution of the fund applications concerned.
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180. Members agreed to the approach elaborated above.
181. The Secretary introduced Paper No. 99/2017.
(I) Tai Po Chinese New Year Programmes 2018
182. Mr. AU Chun-wah requested that TPDO provide more detailed information about the performance by singers and variety show (expenditure item 1), venue set-up (expenditure item 2) and allowance for performing groups (expenditure item 10) at the opening ceremony cum Chinese New Year Flower Market Carnival.
183. Miss Jenny LO responded as follows:
(i) performance by singers and variety show would include the costs for performance by singers, other stage performances (such as Cantonese opera excerpts and magic shows) and audio equipment. (ii) the opening ceremony would take place at Tin Hau Temple Fung Shui Square. Venue set-up would include the costs of setting up a stage, the backdrop and stalls as well as off-stage decoration. (iii) TPDO would invite local groups to perform Lunar New Year scrolls writing and lion dance to enhance the festive atmosphere, and would issue performing group allowance to the two groups concerned.
184. Mr. LAU Yung-wai raised the following views and questions:
(i) the funding amount which this activity had applied for had been $233,000 last year and the amount rose to $300,000 this year. He asked why the amount being applied for increased by as much as 28%. (ii) he requested that TPDO provide more detailed information about the performance by singers and variety show (expenditure item 1), allowance for performing groups (expenditure item 10) and programme organisers’ salary (expenditure item 13), such as how many items there would be in the performance by singers and variety show, why the number of performing groups increased from last year’s one to two this year, and why funding application for programme organisers’ salary was required for the activity this year. (iii) he requested that budgets of fund applications include details of each expenditure item, for instance, the number of performances by singers and variety shows.
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185. Miss Jenny LO responded as follows:
(i) budgets of fund applications had been adjusted upwards owing to inflation and some new expenditure items. (ii) performances by singers and variety shows would have contents similar to those of last year. The performances would be presented in the form of a variety show with some six performance items. The organiser would request the contractor to provide programme details so that the popular items could be kept while new elements could also be included to make the activity novel and appealing. (iii) TPDO in the past had all along invited groups to perform Lunar New Year scrolls writing and it was proposed this year that local groups be invited to perform lion dance too. Hence, there would be two performing groups.
(iv) salary of programme assistants had in the past always been paid with funding from TPDO’s account. Programme assistants helped with preparation and publicity of activities, maintenance of order at venues and tasks such as packing and collection of materials. The related expenditure was included in the activity’s funding application this year. Salary of programme assistants would be paid on an accountable basis and the amount listed in the budget served as the ceiling of programme assistants’ salary.
186. The TPDC resolved to allocate $300,000 to the Tai Po Chinese New Year Programmes 2018 Organising Committee for organising the Tai Po Chinese New Year Programmes 2018 together with TPDO.
(II) Tai Po Feast for the Elderly 2018
187. The Acting Chairman reminded those eight Members who held a substantive position in the hosting or co-hosting organisations concerned (i.e. Mr. CHAN Cho-leung, Mr. CHAN Siu-kuen, Mr. CHENG Chun-ping, Dr. LAU Chee-sing, Mr. LI Kwok-ying, Mr. Patrick TANG, Mr. Ken YU and the Acting Chairman herself) to remain silent during the discussion of this fund application and abstain from resolution or voting. However, they could provide supplementary information upon request where necessary.
188. The TPDC resolved to allocate $531,450 to Tai Po Rural Committee for organising the Tai Po Feast for the Elderly 2018 together with the Tai Po Chinese New Year Programmes 2018 Organising Committee.
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(III) Festive Lighting of Tai Po Chinese New Year Programme 2018
189. The Acting Chairman reminded those four Members who held a substantive position in the hosting organisation concerned (i.e. Mr. CHAN Cho-leung, Dr. LAU Chee-sing, Mr. LI Kwok-ying and Mr. Ken YU) to remain silent during the discussion of this fund application and abstain from resolution or voting. However, they could provide supplementary information upon request where necessary.
190. Mr. LAU Yung-wai enquired about the three new locations for the installation of festive lighting this year.
191. Ms. Trazy LEE responded that one of the new locations was Sai Sha Road roundabout at Sai Kung North and she would give details of the other two after the meeting.
192. The TPDC resolved to allocate $580,000 to Tai Po Merchants Association Limited for installing the Festive Lighting of Tai Po Chinese New Year Programme 2018 together with the Tai Po Chinese New Year Programmes 2018 Organising Committee.
(IV) Sai Kung North Fun Day cum Feast for the Elderly
193. The Acting Chairman reminded Mr. LI Yiu-ban who held a substantive position in the hosting organisation concerned to remain silent during the discussion of this fund application and abstain from resolution or voting. However, he could provide supplementary information upon request where necessary.
194. The TPDC resolved to allocate $210,000 to Sai Kung North Rural Committee for organising Sai Kung North Fun Day cum Feast for the Elderly together with the Tai Po Chinese New Year Programmes 2018 Organising Committee.
(V) Chinese New Year Calligraphy, Painting and Photography Exhibition cum Art Fair Carnival 2018
195. The Acting Chairman reminded those two Members who held a substantive position in the hosting organisation concerned (i.e. Mr. CHAN Cho-leung and the Acting Chairman herself) to remain silent during the discussion of this fund application and abstain from resolution or voting. However, they could provide supplementary information upon request where necessary.
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196. The TPDC resolved to allocate $127,000 to Tai Po District Arts Advancement Association for organising Chinese New Year Calligraphy, Painting and Photography Exhibition cum Art Fair Carnival 2018 together with the Tai Po Chinese New Year Programmes 2018 Organising Committee.
197. Members noted the details of the 40 applications and revised applications for DC Funds endorsed by TPDC and its Committees within two months prior to this meeting.
X V. Fund application for the Committee on Reduction of Salt and Sugar in Food (TPDC Paper No. 100/2017)
198. The Acting Chairman requested that Members declare interests where necessary in respect of the funding application submitted to TPDC for vetting.
199. The Secretary reported that pursuant to Orders 48(9) and 48(10) of the TPDC Standing Orders, a Member shall declare interests if he found he had direct personal interests, pecuniary interests or other interests in an application for DC Funds under consideration, or had links with the benefited party or the potential benefited party. According to the information collected, the Secretariat had not identified any links between Members and the organisation. Members make revisions or give supplementary information where necessary. In addition, he reminded Members that they should also declare interests if they had any direct personal interests, pecuniary interests or other interests in the application for DC Funds being examined.
200. Members neither made revisions nor gave supplementary information.
201. The TPDC resolved to allocate $110,744.3 to Pentecostal Church of Hong Kong Tai Wo Nursery School and to waive the expenditure ceiling for notes to contained in Appendix I to Paper No. 100/2017 for organising the “Little Pioneers of Salt and Sugar Reduction” Project.
XVI. Schedule of meetings of the TPDC and the TPDC committees in 2018 (TPDC Paper No. 101/2017)
202. The Secretary introduced Paper No. 101/2017.
203. Members endorsed the schedule of meetings of the TPDC and its committees in 2018 contained in the captioned paper.
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XVII. Meeting and lunch gathering with legislative councillors
204. The Acting Chairman said that to enhance communication between LegCo and DCs, LegCo would hold meetings with DCs of all districts. The meeting between LegCo and TPDC this year would be held on 26 January 2018, followed by a lunch gathering. According to the usual practice of TPDC, the five Committees under TPDC would be entrusted the task to draft the discussion topics with LegCo and to prepare the information related to those topics, which would then be submitted to TPDC for scrutiny and passage.
205. Members agreed to follow the usual practice described above.
206. The Acting Chairman continued that since discussion topics and related information had to be submitted to LegCo Secretariat within this year, in view of the time constraint, she suggested that after drafting the discussion topics at their respective meetings next week, the Committees complete by circulation of papers subsequent procedures such as passage of discussion topics and related information which the Committees had drafted.
207. Members agreed to the suggestion mentioned above in paragraph 206.
XVIII. Any other business
(I) Delegation of authority to the Agriculture, Fisheries, Commerce, Industries, Tourism and Recreation Affairs Committee to establish the non-standing Working Group on Review of Guideline on Allocation of District Council Funds
208. The Acting Chairman advised that the TPDC would review the Guideline on Allocation of District Council Funds each year with reference to the experience accumulated and problems encountered when handling funding applications during the past year. The task had all along been entrusted to a non-standing working group established by the ATRC.
209. The TPDC agreed to follow the usual practice and authorise the ATRC to establish a working group to review the Guideline on Allocation of District Council Funds.
(II) “Green Promotional Stalls”of the Hong Kong Flower Show 2018 (TPDC Paper No. 102/2017)
210. The Acting Chairman indicated that the LCSD would hold the Hong Kong Flower Show 2018 from 16 to 25 March next year at Victoria Park and invited the TPDC to take part in the - 59 -
“Green Promotional Stalls” activity of the Flower Show. The Acting Chairman continued that the TPDC had always taken part in the said activity in the past and the EHWC would follow up on the detailed arrangements.
211. Members agreed to continue taking part in the activity this year and that the EHWC would follow up on the matter.
(III) Nomination of TPDC representatives to the 2018/19 Customer Liaison Group of the Hong Kong Post (TPDC Paper No. 103/2017)
212. The Acting Chairman advised that Hong Kong Post (“HKP”) had invited TPDC to nominate representatives to the 2018/19 Customer Liaison Group of the HKP to help monitor HKP’s service and act as a communication platform between the HKP and its customers.
213. Dr. LAU Chee-sing and Mr. Clement WOO nominated Mr. Rex LI as the TPDC representative to the 2018/19 Customer Liaison Group of the HKP. Mr. Rex LI accepted the nomination.
214. Members at the meeting did not make any other nominations.
215. The TPDC endorsed the nomination of Mr. Rex LI as TPDC representative to the said Customer Liaison Group.
(IV) Invitation to be a supporting organisation of the Services Anywhere Social Innovation Service Competition 2018 (TPDC Paper No. 104/2017)
216. The Acting Chairman indicated that VQ Foundation Ltd had invited the TPDC to be a supporting organisation of the “Services Anywhere Social Innovation Service Competition 2018” and requested for permission to display TPDC’s emblem on publicity materials relating to the activity. The Acting Chairman continued that since the organiser had said that it would invite groups to take part in the competition, she did not suggest that TPDC recommend or nominate any groups to participate in the competition.
217. The TPDC agreed to become a supporting organisation of the above-mentioned activity and authorised the display TPDC’s emblem on publicity materials relating to the activity. Nonetheless, TPDC would not nominate any groups to participate in the competition. - 60 -
(V) “Neighbourhood First” Year-end Reunion Lunch 2018 in the 18 districts of Hong Kong (TPDC Paper No. 105/2017)
218. The Acting Chairman indicated that the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (“HKFYG”) had planned to organise the annual“Neighbourhood First” Year-end Reunion Lunch 2018 in the 18 districts of Hong Kong which would host “poon choi” banquets with 1 000 tables on 3 February 2018 (Saturday). HKFYG had invited the TPDC to be a supporting organisation and to sponsor the expenditure on the activity in Tai Po District.
219. The Acting Chairman recommended that the usual practice in the past be followed to only become a supporting organisation without sponsorship.
220. The TPDC concurred with the above recommendation.
XIX. Date of next meeting
221. The next meeting would be held at 9:30 a.m. on 4 January 2018 (Thursday).
222. There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:18 p.m.
Tai Po District Council Secretariat December 2017