North District Council (2020-2023) Minutes of the 1st Meeting of the Committee on Traffic and Transport Date : 20 January 2020 (Monday) Time : 1:15 p.m. Venue : North District Council Conference Room Present: Chairman of North District Council (“NDC Chairman”) and Member of the Committee Mr LAW Ting-tak* (To chair Agenda Item 1) Chairman of the Committee Mr LAU Ki-fung* (To chair Agenda Items 2 and 3) Vice Chairman of the Committee Mr CHAN Wai-tat* Members Mr CHAN Yuk-ming* Ms LAM Tsz-king* Ms LAM Shuk-ching* Mr CHOW Kam-ho* Mr YUEN Ho-lun* Mr CHAN, Vincent Chi-fung* Mr KWOK Long-fung* Mr KO Wai-kei* Mr CHEUNG Ching-ho, Franco* Mr CHEUNG Chun-wai* Mr WAN Wo-tat, Warwick* Ms WONG Hoi-ying* Mr CHIANG Man-ching* Action Secretary Mr HO Tat-man, David Executive Officer (District Council) 3, North District Office Remarks: * Members who attended the whole meeting In Attendance: Mr CHONG Wing-wun, JP District Officer (North), Home Affairs Department Ms KWONG Ting-lok, Maggie Assistant District Officer (North) 1, Home Affairs Department Miss LAM Tsz-yan, Gloria Assistant District Officer (North) 2, Home Affairs Department Ms CHU Wai-lin, Francoise Senior Executive Officer (District Council), North District Office Opening Remarks The NDC Chairman welcomed Members to the 1st meeting of the Committee on Traffic and Transport (“the Committee”) of the North District Council (“NDC”) and also welcomed District Officer (North) to the meeting. He stated that in accordance with Order 35(2) of the NDC Standing Orders, he would preside over the election of the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Committee for the new term, and the new Chairman of the Committee would preside over the rest of the meeting. 2. The NDC Chairman continued by saying that a total of 17 NDC Members had joined the Committee. Members were asked to note the relevant list of Members which had been distributed to them earlier. (Post-meeting note: Mr HAU Chi-keung informed the Secretariat in writing before the meeting that he would not join the Committee. Therefore, a total of 16 NDC Members had joined the Committee.) 2 Action Item 1 - Election of the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Committee 3. The NDC Chairman stated that the nomination forms for the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Committee and election procedures (Appendix IX of the NDC Standing Orders) were emailed to Members by the Secretariat on 10 January 2020. The nomination period for the office of the Chairman of the Committee had ended at 10:45 a.m. on the day of the meeting. The Secretariat only received one nomination form for the office of the Chairman of the Committee. Mr LAU Ki-fung was nominated by Mr CHAN Wai-tat with Ms LAM Shuk-ching as the seconder. He declared that Mr LAU Ki-fung, being the sole candidate, was elected uncontested as the Chairman of the Committee. 4. The election of the Chairman was completed, and the Committee proceeded to elect the Vice Chairman. 5. The NDC Chairman stated that the nomination period for the office of Vice Chairman of the Committee had ended at 10:45 a.m. on the day of the meeting. The Secretariat only received one nomination for the office of Vice Chairman of the Committee. Mr CHAN Wai-tat was nominated by Mr CHAN Yuk-ming with Ms LAM Tsz-king as the seconder. He declared that Mr CHAN Wai-tat, being the sole candidate, was elected uncontested as the Vice Chairman of the Committee. 6. The Chairman of the Committee (“the Chairman”) thanked Members for their support. He stated that the Committee would endeavour to advise the Government and reflect appeals of residents of North District in respect of traffic and transport issues in the district in the next four years in order to further improve the transport facilities of North District. Item 2 - Any Other Business (a) Handling of the Provisional Motion on “Shelving the Introduction of Citybus Route B7” 7. The Chairman said that the Secretariat received a provisional motion for discussion at the meeting. He requested the Secretary to distribute the provisional motion and the written response by the Transport 3 Action Department (“TD”) to Members. The Secretary distributed the papers to Members. 8. The Chairman stated that as stipulated in Order 13(2) of the NDC Standing Orders, subject to the consent of more than half of the Members present at the meeting, the Chairman might approve the inclusion of the provisional motion concerned in the agenda. Therefore, the Committee should first decide whether to approve the inclusion of the provisional motion in the agenda. 9. Mr CHAN Yuk-ming agreed to the inclusion of the provisional motion in the agenda. Since no Member raised objection, the Chairman approved the inclusion of the provisional motion in the agenda. 10. Mr CHIANG Man-ching introduced the provisional motion, which was at Annex I. 11. Mr CHAN Yuk-ming agreed to the details of the motion, and put forward the following comments: (a) Apart from Tsui Lai Garden, Route B7 would also route via Fanling and be provided with an en-route stop outside a playground near Fanling Centre. He disagreed to the location of the above en-route stop. He considered the said location too close to residential blocks and it was also the gateway for residents of Fanling Centre, Fanling Town Centre and Cheung Wah Estate to pass through in order to go to work or go to school. Pedestrian and traffic flows at Fanling Station Road were very high and there was the problem of illegal parking; (b) He learnt from relevant departments that the bus bay at Fanling Station Road had to be widened twice as it was projected in an assessment that the stop would be very busy with extremely high pedestrian flow. Route B7 would provide whole-day service with the frequency of every 10 minutes or so. It was projected that there would always be two buses picking up and dropping off passengers at the en-route stop at Fanling Station Road. He asked whether relevant departments had taken the tolerance of nearby housing estates into consideration. He was worried that people who were waiting for the buses would gather at the stop all the time and some of them would even sit on edges of nearby planters and tidy up their goods, making it difficult for pedestrians to pass through. Based on the experience of various districts, he believed 4 Action that the order of the en-route stop at Fanling Station Road would be far from satisfactory; and (c) The TD stated in its written response that it had consulted the working group concerned under the Committee of the last term on the introduction of Route B7. However, the TD and the bus company only provided a preliminary alignment of the route at that time, and information such as frequency of the route, pedestrian flow assessment was provided at a very late stage. He hoped that the TD would shelve the introduction of Route B7 and discuss relevant arrangements with the district councillor of the constituency, housing estates, schools and traders again before the introduction of the route. 12. Mr CHONG Wing-wun clarified the contents of the first paragraph of the written response by the TD: several NDC Members, who were members of the Democratic Party, submitted a similar proposal on the issue concerned before and the TD had already provided its written response to the proposal. However, Mr CHIANG Man-ching, who was not a member of the Democratic Party, put forward the provisional motion at the meeting. Due to time constraints, the TD was unable to amend the mover’s name in its written response in time. Nevertheless, Members could still refer to the contents of the written response. He requested Members to return the written response, which was tabled at the meeting, to the Secretariat after the meeting. The Secretariat would distribute the amended written Secretariat response to Members in due course. (Post-meeting note: The amended written response, which was at Annex II, was distributed to Members by the Secretariat on 27 February 2020.) 13. Ms WONG Hoi-ying said that she objected to the introduction of Route B7 in May 2019. She reckoned that if the introduction of Route B7 aimed to facilitate passengers to interchange for the East Rail Line, it would be unnecessary for the route to be close to residential blocks. She reckoned that Route B7 should operate at places far away from residential blocks. The TD should consult residents on the alignment of Route B7 again in order not to affect the livelihood of residents. 14. Mr KWOK Long-fung was worried that Route B7 would route via residential blocks in the vicinity of Sheung Shui and Fanling. Noting that North District had already withstood a high volume of visitor flow to Hong Kong via Lok Ma Chau and Lo Wu control points, he believed that it would be difficult for North District to share the visitor flow via Heung Yuen Wai 5 Action Boundary Control Point. If the introduction of Route B7 aimed to divert visitors via Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point, he suggested that the terminus of the route should be provided in a district other than North District. 15. Mr Vincent CHAN suggested that the terminus of Route B7 should be provided in the industrial area in the vicinity of Cambridge Plaza, Sheung Shui. He opined that the pedestrian traffic at the location was low, and the provision of the terminus there could resolve the problem without affecting residents.