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Minutes of the 7th Meeting of the Southern District Council (SDC) (2020-2023) Date : 5 November 2020 Time : 2:30 p.m. Venue : SDC Conference Room Present: Mr LO Kin-hei (Chairman) Mr Paul ZIMMERMAN (Vice Chairman) Mr CHAN Hin-chung Mr CHAN Ping-yeung Ms CHAN Yan-yi Mr LAM Andrew Tak-wo Mr LAM Ho-por, Kelvin Ms LAM Yuk-chun, MH Mr Jonathan LEUNG Chun Ms LI Shee-lin Mr PANG Cheuk-kei, Michael Mr POON Ping-hong Mr TSUI Yuen-wa Mr WONG Yui-hei, Angus Mr YIM Chun-ho Mr YU Chun-hei, James Miss YUEN Ka-wai, Tiffany Secretary: Ms CHAU Pui-king, Janice Acting Senior Executive Officer (District Council), Southern District Office, Home Affairs Department In Attendance: Mr CHENG Kong-chung, Francis, JP District Officer (Southern), Home Affairs Department Miss CHENG Wai-sum, Sum Assistant District Officer (Southern), Home Affairs Department Miss CHONG Wing-yan, Stephanie Assistant District Officer (Southern)(Designate), Home Affairs Department Mr LEUNG Ying-kit Senior Executive Officer (District Management), Southern District Office, Home Affairs Department Ms CHAN Grace Senior Liaison Officer (1), Southern District Office, Home Affairs Department Miss CHOW Suk-yee, Jessica Senior Liaison Officer (2), Southern District Office, Home Affairs Department Mr HON Ming-sau District Environmental Hygiene Superintendent (Southern), Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Miss MAN Chi-nga, Flora District Leisure Manager (Southern), Leisure and Cultural Services Department Miss LEE Sin-man Chief Manager/Management(HKI), Housing Department Mr AU Siu-fung, Kelvin Chief Transport Officer/Hong Kong, Transport Department Ms WONG Siu-hing, Queenie District Commander (Western District), Hong Kong Police Force Mr YU Kong, James Police Community Relations Officer (Western District), Hong Kong Police Force Ms YIP Siu-ling Neighbourhood Police Coordinator, Police Community Relations Office (Western District), Hong Kong Police Force Ms YAU Siu-kam, Rosa Curator (Education & Publicity), Antiquities and Monuments Office for agenda Mr FUNG Chun-hong Assistant Curator I (Monument item 4 Records), Antiquities and Monuments Office 2 Opening Remarks The Chairman welcomed members and Government representatives to the meeting and said that in view of the latest situation of the Coronavirus Disease 2019, the SDC members, departmental representatives and media were advised to bring their own masks and water. Before entering the venue, all persons were subject to checking of body temperature with the assistance of the staff of Southern District Office (SDO), and were required to complete a health declaration form and declare whether he/she was under the 14-day compulsory quarantine. 2. Mr Paul ZIMMERMAN said that the agenda for the meeting was incomplete. He enquired why the three items “Motion to Safeguard the Labour Rights of Residents in the Southern District and Opposition to a Freeze on the Minimum Wage”, “Motion to Oppose the Setting Up of Polling Stations for Hong Kong’s Elections in the Greater Bay Area or other Mainland Districts” and “Motion to Oppose the Implementation of the Proposed Artificial Islands in the Central Waters by the Government in view of its impacts on the Traffic Condition of the Southern District and the Nearby Waters” were not included in the meeting agenda. He commented that the three items should be included in the meeting agenda. 3. The Chairman said that he received four agenda items from members before the meeting, namely “Motion to Safeguard the Labour Rights of Residents in the Southern District and Opposition to a Freeze on the Minimum Wage”, “Motion to Oppose the Setting Up of Polling Stations for Hong Kong’s Elections in the Greater Bay Area or other Mainland Districts”, “Motion to Oppose the Implementation of the Proposed Artificial Islands in the Central Waters by the Government in view of its impacts on the Traffic Condition of the Southern District and the Nearby Waters” and Agenda Item 4 “Conserve the Military Relics of the Second World War in the Southern District” proposed by Mr CHAN Ping-yeung. He had approved the inclusion of these four items in the meeting agenda. But the Secretariat of the SDC had only circulated the discussion papers and the replies from the relevant Departments for Agenda Item 4. He further said that members had received emails from the Southern District Council Secretariat (the Secretariat) indicating the Government’s view that Agenda Items 5 to 7 were not compatible with the District Councils Ordinance. In reply to the email, he said that at the past several meetings the Government had not adequately explained and justified why some agenda items were not compatible with SDO, which had made it difficult for him to determine which agenda items were incompatible with the District Councils Ordinance. He had not received responses for his reply and the Secretariat had not provided any discussion papers for Agenda Items 5 to 7. He believed that the Secretariat staff would leave the meeting when it came to the discussion of Agenda Items 5 to 7 later. 4. The Chairman invited District Officer (Southern) to respond. 3 5. Mr Francis CHENG, JP responded that in the emails issued to members before the meeting, the Secretariat had clearly stated the Government’s position that the agenda items in question were not compatible with the District Councils Ordinance and so the Secretariat would not issue the relevant papers. Neither would the Secretariat attend, participate in nor record the discussion of the papers. 6. The Chairman said that Mr Paul ZIMMERMAN had replied to the Secretariat by emails several times that according to “Technical Study on Transport Infrastructure at Kennedy Town for Connecting to East Lantau Metropolis – Feasibility Study” (the Technical Study on East Lantau Metropolis) by Civil Engineering and Development Department, the area involved under the “Proposed Artificial Islands in the Central Waters” (the Proposed Artificial Islands) and the alignment of Route 4 proposed under Agenda Item 7 included the Southern District. He queried why the Government considered that Agenda Item 7 had no particular connection with the Southern District. 7. Mr Francis CHENG, JP responded that it was not a suitable occasion to discuss the aforesaid issue at the meeting. 8. The Chairman stressed that SDO had not squarely replied to the aforesaid question. 9. Mr Francis CHENG, JP responded that after receiving agenda items submitted by members, the Secretariat would study them carefully and go through a rigorous process which included consulting the relevant Bureaux and Departments and seeking legal advice where necessary. 10. The Chairman said that Mr Paul ZIMMERMAN had issued two emails to the Secretariat stating that the Technical Study on East Lantau Metropolis definitely indicated that Agenda Item 7 involved areas of the Southern District and was thus obviously related to the Southern District. But after studying the agenda item, the Government failed to explain and justify adequately why the agenda item had no particular relation with the Southern District. He enquired what was a suitable occasion to discuss the aforesaid issue and when the Government would respond to the aforesaid question. 11. Mr Francis CHENG, JP responded that the Secretariat had forwarded the agenda items submitted by members to the Secretariat before the meeting and the subsequent replies and comments made by the Chairman and Mr Paul ZIMMERMAN concerning the agenda items to the relevant Bureaux and Departments for consideration and had not received further responses from the relevant Bureaux and Departments. 4 12. Mr Paul ZIMMERMAN said that under the Proposed Artificial Islands scheme there would be a transport link between Pok Fu Lam and the vicinity of Sai Ying Pun and Kennedy Town. A drawing in the Technical Study on East Lantau Metropolis also showed clearly that the area involved under the Proposed Artificial Islands included most areas of the Southern District. He emphasised that the Proposed Artificial Islands would have direct impacts on various aspects of the lives of the residents in his Pok Fu Lam constituency and he could not understand why Agenda Item 7 could not be discussed at the SDC meeting. Moreover, he had sent an email concerning the issue to the Secretariat, but had yet to receive responses from the Secretariat. He suggested postponing the discussion of Agenda Item 7 to the next SDC meeting pending a decision made by the Home Affairs Department (HAD) and the relevant Bureaux and Departments on whether the item should be included in the meeting agenda. 13. The Chairman suggested that members decide whether to discuss Agenda Items 5 to 7 after completing the discussion of Agenda Item 4. He believed that the staff members of the Secretariat and the Government Departments would not participate in and discuss any issues that were deemed to be incompatible with the District Councils Ordinance by the Government and expressed regret about this. He commented that it was up to the Government to decide how to handle the affairs of District Councils (DCs), but District Councillors would continue to perform their duties for SDC. 14. Mr Paul ZIMMERMAN said that in response to the Secretariat’s email to the Chairman concerning Agenda Item 5, he had provided the statistics of the 2016 Population By-Census conducted by the Census and Statistics Department, which showed that 20% of the residents of the Southern District worked in the district, meaning that many residents of the Southern District were employed locally. He emphasised that one duty of SDC members was to handle affairs relating to employment in the Southern District and so it should be the case that Agenda Item 5 could be discussed at SDC meetings. He pointed out that issues related to all Hong Kong people such as drinking water, bus and MTR services had been discussed at SDC meetings for several times, and queried why the Government considered that Agenda Items 5 to 7 were territory-wide issues and were not particularly related to the Southern District.

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