1 Views sought on Recommendation Report on West Kowloon Cultural District
Hong Kong Government, 19 September 2007

The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:

The Legislative Council Subcommittee on West Kowloon Cultural District Development will hold two meetings to receive views from the public on the Recommendation Report of the Consultative Committee on the Core Arts and Cultural Facilities of the West Kowloon Cultural District.

The meetings will be at 9am on October 9 and 23 in the Chamber of the Legislative Council Building.

In February, 2006, the Government set up a Consultative Committee to study and to re-affirm the need for and the scope of the Core Arts and Cultural Facilities in the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD).  The Government presented the Consultative Committee's Recommendation Report to the subcommittee at its meeting on September 12, 2007.  The notes of the presentation made by the Government can be viewed on the following website:

http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr04-05/english/hc/sub_com/hs02/papers/hs02_a2a.htm

The Recommendation Report and other relevant papers can be viewed on the following website:

http://www.hab.gov.hk/wkcd/pe/eng/report.htm

The subcommittee is studying the recommendations of the Consultative Committee. Interested parties are invited to forward their written submissions to the Clerk to the Subcommittee by October 16.If the submissions are available in both Chinese and English, please provide both versions. Those who wish to make oral presentation to the subcommittee at the meeting on Tuesday, October 9 or Tuesday, October 23 are requested to complete and return the reply slip to the Legislative Council Secretariat on or before September 28. The reply slip can be downloaded from the following website:
http://www.legco.gov.hk/general/english/sec/invite_s/hs021009-reply-e.pdf

In line with our usual practice, written submissions received will be made available to the media and the public, and uploaded onto the Website of the Legislative Council unless the concerned parties have advised otherwise. Interested parties are invited to note that meetings of the subcommittee are held in public. When addressing the subcommittee, they are not covered by the protection and immunity provided under the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance (Cap 382). Their submissions will also not be covered by the ordinance.

The relevant address, fax and telephone numbers, and e-mail address are as follows:

Address : Clerk to the Subcommittee on West Kowloon Cultural District Development
Legislative Council Secretariat
3/F Citibank Tower
3 Garden Road
Central
Hong Kong

E-mail Address: cshiu@legco.gov.hk
(Please send a softcopy, if available, of the written submission to this email address)

Fax No. : 2185 7845

Tel No. : 2869 9212, 2509 0614 or 2525 3331

2 MTR Subsidiary to Manage Ngong Ping Cable Car
MTR Press Release, 18 September 2007

The MTR Corporation will set up a subsidiary company to manage and operate the
Ngong Ping cable car system.

Making the announcement at a news conference today (18 September 2007), MTR Corporation Chairman Dr Raymond Ch’ien said the company understands the public’s concerns over the dislodgement of an Ngong Ping Skyrail cabin in June and regrets that visitors have had to be turned away from the attraction since then, which has affected the business of Ngong Ping Village tenants.

We have always emphasised that safety is the number one prerequisite in the operation of the cable car and confirmation by the Government-appointed Expert Panel that the design and safety of the Ngong Ping cable car system are in line with prevailing international standards and practices is welcoming news,” said Dr Ch’ien.

“We will now focus on reopening the tourist attraction after putting it through rigorous testing and re-certification, and we will do everything to re-establish confidence in Ngong Ping cable car as a reliable and efficient system.“

In accepting the Expert Panel’s recommendations for improvements in the management, operation and maintenance of the cable car system, and after reviewing the experience gained in operating the system, the Corporation made the decision to set up a subsidiary company to take on the management and operation of Ngong Ping 360. Agreement has been reached with the current operator, Skyrail-ITM (Hong Kong) on the transfer of management.

“The new company will be led by an international management team comprising MTR engineers and experienced cable car professionals,” Dr Ch’ien said. “We will strengthen the management approach by implementing ISO 9000 and transferring recognised best practices in safety and quality to further raise professional standards.”

Virtually all existing operation and maintenance staff will be transferred to the new company and will receive refresher training to enhance safety awareness and technical competence. Relevant staff members will be reassessed and be subject to further evaluation by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department.

Over the last three months, work has progressed to prepare the ropeway for reopening. Damaged equipment has been repaired or replaced. Engineers and documentation experts are reviewing and improving the operations and maintenance manuals to more clearly spell out procedures for each work process and define the specific roles of personnel involved.

Going forward, the supplier Leitner GmbH will re-examine the ropeway before it is re-tested and re-commissioned. Guests will only be invited back onto the cable cars after all of the required improvements have been implemented, the statutory requirements satisfied and the necessary approvals received.

Like all cable cars around the world, the Ngong Ping system is subject to service disruptions caused by adverse weather or other conditions. In the event of such service disruptions in future, Dr Ch’ien asked members of the public for their understanding and pledged that the new operating company will reduce any inconvenience caused to visitors to a minimum through fast, precise and effective communication and recovery works.

The Corporation is committed to win back confidence in the Ngong Ping cable car system. The aim is to try and reopen the system around the end of the year. A reopening date will be announced upon the satisfactory completion of all testing and re-commissioning works. This is expected to take some time, and the new management company will keep all concerned parties and the public informed of the progress made.

“With our partners, including Ngong Ping Village tenants, Hong Kong Tourism Board, the travel industry and the Lantau community, we will do everything to reestablish Ngong Ping cable car as a world-class tourist attraction for Hong Kong,” Dr Ch’ien said.

3 Skyrail-ITM chief vows to defend middle manager facing negligence counts
Carol Chung, The Standard 20 September 2007

Skyrail-ITM chief executive Ken Chapman yesterday pledged to defend an "innocent" middle manager blamed for an incident that sparked the termination of the company's operation contract.

Chapman told reporters it was "unfair" for the investigation panel to make accusations against 42-year-old assistant manager Li Kit-loi without revealing the cause of a cabin plunging 50 meters from the Ngong Ping 360 line on June 11.

He called on the government-appointed panel to release to the public the report on the cause of the incident, in which no one was hurt.

The report found a Skyrail employee contravened safety measures in manually operating the brake test, which was part of the annual examination of the cable car system, but refused, because of sub judice rules, to expose details.

Li faces three criminal charges of negligence and will appear at Tsuen Wan Magistracy on November 8.

The company will go all the way to clear his name, Chapman said.

Nevertheless, the deal struck between Skyrail-ITM and project owner MTR Corp to terminate Skyrail-ITM's contract was a win-win situation for the top management of both sides.

"We are both satisfied with the agreement terms," an MTRC spokesman said but was tight-lipped about the compensation package.

Chapman also described the year- long partnership with MTRC as a "great team."

Chapman made the comments as he came out of a restaurant near his Tung Chung office yesterday, apparently after his farewell lunch with several Skyrail staff.

According to an MTRC spokesman, the Skyrail-ITM top management - Chapman and managing director Bill Calderwood - will not be part of the management of the new MTRC subsidiary company.

"The new management will consist only of senior MTRC engineers and experienced cable car professionals from overseas," the spokesman said, adding that the company is in the final stage of selecting candidates for the vacant positions of chief executive and chief operating officer.

The new company will work with shop tenants at Ngong Ping market, some of whom have complained of a 90 percent drop in business since the cable car service was suspended, the spokesman added.

Recent hot words and protests over preservation of heritage sites have triggered government action - the Antiquities Advisory Board will increase its transparency and increase public participation in conservation policy.

The advisory board will set up two subcommittees.

One will engage people on how best to preserve and use heritage sites.

The other will comprise professionals with technical knowledge on heritage conservation whose role will focus on grading historic buildings.

"It's not only about grading or declaring monuments. We can explore what to do with the building, to be more proactive and not just standing idle," subcommittee member for the second group Bernard Chan Charnwut told The Standard.

The decision came as more than 50 percent of respondents to a survey released yesterday considered the antiquities board an enigma.

The advisory board was described as "inadequately transparent" by 62 percent of respondents.

Forty percent considered heritage conservation policy "unsatisfactory."

The five-day phone survey of 853 people aged 15 to 40 was done by the Hong Kong New Generation Pulse this month.

Group president Peggy Lee Pik-yee said the figures showed that conservation policy lacked holistic planning.

She suggested a comprehensive review with public involvement, especially of young people.

Chan said all three meetings of the new board appointed in January were open to the public, with the exception of that involving King Yin Lei which involved private property with commercial implications.

Lee Ho-yin, Hong Kong University's architectural conservation program director, said while activists must continue to try to protect valuable heritage sites, professionals must work with the government to develop a comprehensive conservation strategy.

Edward Leung Yee-wah, heritage and conservation committee chairman of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects, agreed the board should be more transparent.

He proposed a more proactive approach by the government to keep the public updated on the latest development involving heritage conservation and potential concerns.

The government's ratings will plunge if it keeps the public in the dark, he said.

Although the government's rating in the survey was less than ideal, 38 percent of respondents did not approve of activists' efforts to save heritage buildings.

Lee said many young people preferred more moderate means of expressing views to the government, rather than being aggressive.

But Julian Fung Ping-tak, core member of Local Action, which was at the forefront of the campaign to save Queen's Pier and Star Ferry Pier, said Hong Kong people "are quite contradictory - they want conservation and yet don't want to fight for it."


5 Site to east of airport backed for bridge
Denise Hung, SCMP 20 September 2007



A 100-hectare reclamation project on Lantau Island, northeast of the airport, is favoured by the government for the landing point of the proposed Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge.

It is one of three options - unveiled for the first time yesterday - for boundary-crossing facilities at the Hong Kong end of the planned 35km bridge across the mouth of the Pearl River. The others include a site west of the airport and one close to Tai Ho Bay.

No date has been set for a start on the HK$30 billion project, with talks among the three involved governments, which started in 2003, bogged down over financing.

The shortlist of options for the Hong Kong landing point, selected after a five-month study, were presented to the Islands District Council yesterday.

The government said the northeast site was favoured because it was 2km away from Tung Chung town, meaning there would be no noise and air quality impact on residents.

It also would not affect the Lantau shoreline, airport channel, dolphin habitats, or the ecologically sensitive Tai Ho Bay, and was away from a geologically complex area of undersea cavities to the west.

The proposal received a mixed response from councillors.

Highways Department project manager Cheng Ting-ning said the close proximity between the checkpoint and the airport would enable the two developments to work together for "synergy and greater convenience to passengers". It could also integrate with the proposed Tuen Mun-Chek Lap Kok Link.

But the disadvantage was that it might require reprovisioning of facilities on the shoreline of the airport island, including SkyPier and the Marine Cargo Terminal so it would take longer to build than the other two  options.

Several council members said a site to the west of the airport would enhance the entire development of Lantau Island.

But the government said three possible sites to the west, looked at during the study, would have affected aircraft landing and taking off, and an archaeological site at San Shek Wan.

It added that the site close to Tai Ho Bay was ecologically sensitive and passengers would need to take a longer route to and from the airport and the northwest New Territories.

A consultant appointed to study the issue said that as the three governments had decided on separate checkpoints and holding areas rather than one joint facility, a reclamation of 90 to 100 hectares was needed.

Tam Hon-choi, Highways Department chief engineer and also responsible for the bridge project, said the consultation process had started to gauge public opinion on the  options.

Mr Tam said a detailed environmental impact assessment would be conducted after a consensus was reached about the site location.


6 Cable car boss defends team's performance Support for accused Skyrail worker
Dennis Eng and Anita Lam, SCMP 20 September 2007

The chairman of cable car operator Skyrail-ITM has rejected government accusations against one of its staff members and defended the way his team performed in running the Ngong Ping 360 attraction.

Ken Chapman said: "I think we've got a great team at Ngong Ping 360 and the team continues. The team was transferred with the business and that's a great team that will ensure Ngong Ping 360 is once again a very successful tourist attraction."

He believed the accusations against Li Kit-loi were wrong and he vowed to defend him.

Li was served three summonses on Monday by the Department of Justice after a government criminal investigation found an apparent breach of Section 23A of the Aerial Ropeways (Safety) Ordinance.

On June 11, a cable car cabin fell to the ground during a testing of the braking system. The report into the incident accused the operator of failing to consult the manufacturer before the test, performing the test negligently and negligently supervising an assistant.

A new subsidiary of the MTR Corporation will take over control of the cable car, but most Skyrail staff will be kept on. The MTR Corp owns the attraction.

The Italian manufacturer of the one-year-old cable car system also questioned whether Skyrail-ITM (Hong Kong) had carried out proper maintenance.

Speaking for the first time since the government announced the findings of its investigation on Tuesday, Markus Sigrist, construction manager of Leitner Asia, said he was surprised by the extent and rate of wear and tear of some parts so early in the life of the facility.

He said the level of sulfuric acid, present in acid rain, in the area was higher than initially expected.

"You must ask what the maintenance team has done about that. If I were the operator, I would acknowledge the rate of depreciation, correct that and make sure that maintenance work increases."

Democrat lawmaker Andrew Cheng Kar-foo said legislators would follow up on the issue after the government disclosed that part of the report detailing the cause of the incident was "sanitised" as the case has entered legal proceedings.

Shop tenants at the "ghost village" of Ngong Ping said they hoped to meet by the end of the month to discuss what help they could expect from the MTR Corp.

Fannie Lee Mei-sze, assistant marketing manager of the Home of Swallow - whose branch at Ngong Ping has closed because of a slump in trade - said it would be nice if they were offered priority in shop rentals at MTR stations.

"The previous activities and fairs organised by the MTRC in a bid to boost the flow of visitors to the village did not help much. I think giving us priority to open shops at MTR stations is a more practical option."

Shoe shop owner Ken Leung was sceptical about the village's 16 stores reaching consensus. "We have less capital and resources than the chain stores. What they ask for may not be applicable to us."