TWO MAJOR EXTENSIONS PLANNED AT LEGCO SITE
Construction work to house 20 extra lawmakers required under the overhaul of electoral system is expected to be completed by 2025 at the earliest
The Legislative Council is planning two extensions at its Admiralty complex to accommodate the 20 extra lawmakers required under Beijing’s overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system.
Temporary offices for members will be rented elsewhere in the city during construction work which will potentially last more than three years.
To accelerate the project and keep costs down, the new offices are expected to be built using prefabricated modular units, made off-site and brought to the legislature for assembly.
But details of the costs were not made available to legislators when they were briefed on the plan.
We need to be flexible and creative to save money LAWMAKER MA FUNG-KWOK
Officials from the Architectural Services Department unveiled the plans in two closeddoor meetings of the Legislative Council Commission yesterday, some two months after Beijing approved the drastic shake-up of elections in Hong Kong.
Under those reforms, the legislature’s membership will expand from 70 to 90, with 40 lawmakers returned by a newly empowered Election Committee, which was previously responsible only for selecting the city’s leader.
The number of directly elected lawmakers in the next Legco will be reduced sharply from 35 to 20.
Beijing and Hong Kong officials insisted the revamp was necessary to avoid a repeat of the 2019 social unrest. But opposition activists and Western politicians said it was aimed at wiping out dissident voices.
In February, 47 opposition activists were charged with subversion over an unofficial primary election last summer.
One of them, ex-lawmaker Andrew Wan Siu-kin, yesterday became the latest to resign as a district councillor.
Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen, Legco’s president, said the commission endorsed the government’s plan to build two extensions to the complex in response to the existing site only being able to accommodate a maximum of 72 lawmaker offices.
Under the proposals, four floors will be added to an existing 10-storey building, while a new 10-storey structure will be built over an open triangular garden to connect with the main block.
“Legco was initially designed for future expansion … We reviewed the possibility of building a separate wing in nearby sites. But it’s not as fast and cost-effective as this proposal,” Leung said.
Leung said given that construction would only start in the middle of next year with completion in 2025 at the earliest, temporary office space would be rented in the city’s central business district to house the new lawmakers as they start their fouryear term following the Legco elections scheduled for December this year.
Citing briefings from officials involved in the project, he said no construction costs or rental budgets were available for scrutiny at this stage.
Members of the Legco commission are set to hold meetings later this month to discuss details.
The Post understands the new extensions will be built using modular integrated construction in which free-standing modules are fabricated with fixtures and fittings off-site and then transported to the site for assembly.
“This method will shorten the construction period, and the technology gained wide acceptance locally as it also causes less disturbance to the site,” a government official said.
Ma Fung-kwok, lawmaker for the sports, performing arts, culture and publication sector, hoped the government would minimise rental costs during the transitional period to uphold the principle of prudent financial management.
“Can we simply subdivide our existing office areas to accommodate more members? Can we build temporary shelters in empty lots nearby for office use like those quarantine camps at Penny’s Bay?” he said. “We need to be flexible and creative to save money.”