Kowloon City Branch
Work report of
2016-2019
To Kwa Wan
PUN Kwok-wah District Council Members
LEE Wai-king ,Starr y KWAN Ho-yeung ,Roger District Council Members
Legco Members District Council Members
The paralysis caused by low-cost tours to To Kwa Wan
2016 -2019
Commerce and Economic Development Bureau ・We demanded the government to seriously tackle the district and traffic problems caused by over-tourism in To Kwa Wan. ・We regularly met with and patrolled alongside government officers to understand the true situation on the ground in To Kwa Wan. ・We urged the diversion of mainland tour groups via methods such as using the facilities at Kai Tak cruise terminal to spread tour groups around instead of concentrating in one place. ・We demanded the government to seriously deal with the impact caused by low cost tours to the district. ・We banned “no-cost tours” from entering the HKSAR ・We urged the relevant government departments to deal with the large volume of tourists on tour buses in our district and make positive changes easier to promote. ・Set up a tourism monitoring board as soon as possible.
Meeting on the tourism industr y ・Aim to play a middleman role between stakeholders in the tourism business and discuss how to better control tourist inflows and prevent the overconcentration of tourists. ・Set up effective combined actions to crack down on “bad tour groups”entering Hong Kong. ・We oppose allowing any new shops or restaurants targeting Mainland tour groups to open in Kowloon City. ・We demand that tourist oriented businesses in Kowloon City take credible crowd control measures and also ensure the cleanliness of the area so as not to affect the quality of life of local residents.
District Work Home Affairs Department ・Set up a tourism officer to deal with “tourist blackspots” and promote “crowd control”and “dealing with illegal parking of tour buses.” ・Cooperate with the police to enact “Road Safety Protocol on Receiving Tourists”and call on the tourism industr y to provide staff to ensure that tour groups and buses follow the law and to help tourists get on and off the bus where needed. ・Spend more resources and increase the number of personnel to expand the utility of the tourism officer. ・We urge the HAD to have staff assist various departments in each district to speed up policies to alleviate various problems.
The Police ・Cooperate with the HAD to enact “Road Safety Protocol on Receiving Tourists” and call on the tourism industr y to provide staff to ensure that tour groups and buses follow the law and to help tourists get on and off the bus where needed. ・Improve the “Road Safety Protocol on Receiving Tourists” to include tour agencies, tour bus companies and tour guides. Regularly send staff to teach ”effective management of tour groups ”to the tourism industr y. ・Send traffic police to tourist blackspots during busy periods to deal with illegally parked tour buses. ・Continue to improve the “Road Safety Protocol on Receiving Tourists” by utilizing specially trained police units to cooperate with the HAD to patrol tourist blackspots and help deal with traffic and tourist flow. ・Tour buses must drop off and pick up passengers at designated spots or else they will be immediately towed. ・Use video and digital recordings to increase the rule of law.
Transport department ・Regularly patrol the district with a department representative and research how best to deal with illegal parking. ・Increase the number of areas banning tour buses and restrict the number of tour buses that pick up or discharge passengers in the district. ・We urge the creation of designated parking lots for tour buses to discharge and pick up passengers,reducing the effect on local residents. ・Speed up the road renovation works on Chi Kiang St and improve district traffic flow.
Community activities
We held different activities in the community such as signature drives, press conferences and petitions. These put pressure on the government to take our problems as a district seriously.
2015~2017
1. We held signature petitions urging the government to solve the problem of overtourism in our district and to build tourist-oriented shopping in the cruise terminal to enable better tourist flow. 2. We held a petition at Government Headquarters regarding the problem of Mainland Tour buses overwhelming our district and we requested assistance to solve this issue and also lengthening the period of time when tour buses are banned from To Kwa Wan. 3. We urged the government to discuss the effect that Mainland tours have brought to our district many times in Legco. 4. We urged the police to increase the number of personnel to enforce the law against illegally parked tour buses.
2018.12.24
We held a press conference demanding that the government deal with the problems caused by low-cost tours overrunning To Kwa Wan and Hung Hom districts. We urged them to limit the number of low-cost tour groups entering Hong Kong and we demanded the Travel Industr y Council to stop concentrating businesses catering to low-cost tours in To Kwa Wan and Hung Hom. We demanded that such businesses that are aimed at these tours and are causing major problems for the district should have their licenses cancelled. We also demanded limiting the time that the parking lot at Kowloon City Ferr y Pier can be utilized and the closure of the landing steps at King Wan Street.
2019.3-4 1. We met with the Chairman of the Travel Industr y Council to suggest that passengers for the Victoria Harbour Cruise should utilize the terminal at Kai Tak instead of Hung Hom in order to not affect residential areas. The Council decided to shelve the Hung Hom proposal. 2. We held two petitions to the Chief Executive to explain the situation of Mainland tours overrunning To Kwa Wan and for the government to take the problem seriously.
2019.7.16 We held another press conference warning the government that solutions to tourists overcrowding Kowloon City cannot be delayed time and again. We clearly stated many suggestions. They included suggestions to ensure the Kai Tai ferr y terminal be used by Victoria Harbour Cruises as a pick up and drop off point, to close the landing steps at King Wan Street immediately, to increase the area that ban tour buses within the district and to set up a tourism monitoring bureau as soon as possible.
Early successes ・The Victoria Harbour Cruise now utilizes the Kai Tak ferr y terminal as a pick up and drop off point,helpingwith tourist flow. ・We closed the Public Landing Steps at King Wan Street Street.. ・Many ・Many areas have now banned tour buses buses.. These include the inner streets at Wyler Gardens, San Ma Tau Street,Kwei Chow Street, Chi Kiang Street and Long Yuet Street . ・The L19 portion of Chi Kiang street was opened to help deal with traffic flow in the district. ・Got the police to take the problem seriously as they sent a lot of personnel to deal with tourist flow and tour bus traffic traffic.. ・Got the Home Affairs Department to take the problem seriously. They set up tourism officers and held many cross-departmental activities to stop the problem from getting worse. ・Successfully lobbied the “Man Ho Restaurant” to give up its application to be a restaurant aimed at Mainland tours and to continue being a restaurant oriented to locals. ・We regularly invite staff from the CEDB to patrol the district and evaluate how best to improve the effectiveness of facilities and methods to deal with tourists. ・The Travel Industr y Council has ensured that each new business aimed at Mainland tours must first undergo consultation with local residents residents.. ・The businesses aimed at Mainland tours in the district already have new personnel and facilities that help improve management and customer flow.
We continue to urge for the following: ・Set up a tourism monitoring bureau as soon as possible. ・Expand the area where tour buses are forbidden in To Kwa Wan and Hung Hom. ・The tourism industry and related stakeholders to become efficient at controlling tourist flow. ・Stop new businesses aimed at Mainland tours from registering to stop the situation at To Kwa Wan from deteriorating further.
Progress of the Shatin-Central Link 2016-2019 2016 ・We regularly monitored and followed up on the progress of construction of the Shatin-Central Link and minimized their effects on local residents. ・We followed up on the case where electric circuits were improperly installed during work on the Shatin-Central Link and diffused the danger of electricity blackouts in To Kwa Wan.
2017 ・We improved the street level facilities by adding lights to the pedestrian walkway along the To Kwa Wan Shatin-Central Link construction site to ensure public safety. ・Successfully named the station on the Shatin-Central Link in question To Kwa Wan station” to avoid confusion.
2018 ・We met with Secretar y for Transport and Housing Frank Chan urging him to strictly follow up on the “ To Kwa Wan station collapse incident” and the “ To Kwa Wan station corner cutting incident”. ・We held a petition at MTRC headquarters demanding the MTRC to hand over information related to the To Kwa Wan station collapse incident. ・A special large-scale meeting of the Kowloon City District Council was held demanding the government to hand over information related to the To Kwa Wan station collapse incident. ・We met with the Chief Secretar y for Administration to deal with the safety issues caused by the To Kwa Wan station collapse incident. ・We demanded the government and the MTRC to provide suitable compensation for those affected by the incident. ・We performed safety inspections with engineers on the buildings affected by the incident to ensure that the structures were safe. ・We held a press conference urging the MTRC to ensure the operation of the Shatin-Central link as soon as safety is guaranteed.
2019
・The MTRC responded to our requests by promoting the “ To Kwa Wan Station Community Care Programme”to provide financial assistance to those affected by the To Kwa Wan station collapse incident. ・Proactively helped over a hundred residents affected by the incident to apply for the “ To Kwa Wan Station Community Care Programme”. ・We urged the MTRC to continue closely monitoring and delivering regular reports on all apartment data until atleast a year after the Shatin-Central link becomes operational. ・We urged the terms of the “ To Kwa Wan Station Community Care Programme”to be loosened and for the application period to be lengthened in order to benefit more commuters. ・We met Secretar y for Transport and Housing Frank Chan to follow up on how to solve the problems stemming from the To Kwa Wan station collapse incident and urged them to begin operations for Ho Man Tin station as soon as it was safe. ・We held a petition at MTRC Headquarters requesting for the Shatin-Central link to begin operations as soon as it is safe to do so. We also urged them to provide ticket discounts and ser vices to connect the trains to other methods of transport. ・We demanded the MTRC to provide support and proper compensation for residents and businesses affected by the To Kwa Wan station collapse incident. ・We invited the Secretar y for Transport and Housing Frank Chan to listen to the advice and feelings local residents have for the “arrangements for To Kwa Wan station after the collapse incident”and the “Delays to opening the Shatin-Central link”. ・We urge turning the Shatin-Central link construction area back into a district rest area as it was previously.
Details regarding the expansion of Hoi Sam Park 2017 - The 2017 Policy Address announced that it will give $20 billion to construct different sports and recreational facilities. One of the projects is to “expand and renovate Hoi Sam Park .”
2018 - The government departments responsible started writing up its projects to the Panel on Home Affairs within Legco for suggestions and consultation.
2019 - The Panel on Home Affairs finished the related consultation and suggestions period for the project on Februar y 25th. - The “Hoi Sham Park Extension in Kowloon City District” proposal was approved for funding on May 29th by the Public Works Subcommittee in Legco when work was estimated to start in late 2019. - Legco was vandalized on July 1st and all related work both legislative and physical have been delayed. - We will continue to monitor and request the renovation work at Hoi Sam park to be completed as soon as possible.
Mr KWAN Ho-yeung Office Address： Tel. No.： Fax No.： E-mail Address： Whatsapp / Wechat：
Shop B, 46-48 Pau Chung Street, To Kwa Wan, Kowloon 2330 2792 2760 0770 kwanhoyeungdc@gmail.com 5428 8820
Mr PUN Kwok-wah Office Address： G/F, On Fook Building, 32 Mei King Street, Tokwawan, Kowloon Tel. No.： 2330 4790 Fax No.： 2330 6460 E-mail Address： g12hoisham-kln@yahoo.com.hk
Ms Starr y LEE Wai-king Office Address： Shop 8, G/F., Tung Shun Hing Building, 22 Chi Kiang Street, Tokwawan, Kowloon Tel. No.： 2330 3130 Fax No.： 2330 6621 E-mail Address： leewaikingdc@gmail.com Whatsapp / Wechat： 5307 3337