Public being denied rights of access to private sports clubs

The Ombudsman has criticized the Home Affairs Bureau (HAB) and Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) for failing to ensure that private sports clubs fulfill their obligation to allow use of their facilities by the general public.

The Ombudsman, in a report released on Wednesday, says poor administration by the government departments is at least partly responsible for a lack of facilities for members of the public to take part in sporting activities.

The Private Recreational Leases Act stipulates that private sporting facilities are permitted to use government land, either free of charge or at nominal rates. In return, however, the clubs are required to open their doors to the general public. The government has granted lands under lease to organizations since 1884. Generally, they are renewable every 15 years. As at June this year, 55 of the 73 clubs had gone through a renewal of their leases. The government, under great public pressure, required the clubs to provide no less than 50 hours per month to non-members from the original requirement which was more than 36 hours.

Ombudsman Alan Lai Nin said the 50-hour requirement still was not a fair exchange given the resources enjoyed by the major sports clubs in premium locations. At the same time, the policy is unfair to the small private sports clubs, he said. Lai also blasted the HAB for failing to monitor the clubs effectively, allowing them to slip away unnoticed without fulfilling their obligations to the general public.

A HAB spokesman said "the HAB considers it reasonable to demand that sports clubs pledge to open their facilities under a minimum requirement, (that is, at least 50 hours per month)."

The bureau will conduct "a comprehensive review of the lease policy with relevant policy bureaus and departments after completion of the lease renewal exercise", he added.

Meanwhile, touting of facilities booking is reportedly rampant at sports facilities operated by the LCSD. The system was being exploited by those who book several venues by using different identity documents at a time, then resell the time slots at a profit to their buyers.

The venue staff, moreover, have failed to verify whether those booking the venues were legitimate users, the Ombudsman learned.

Lai suggested penalizing those who fail to turn up after booking facilities. Last year alone, the department recorded more than 150,000 no-shows.

Under the existing stand-by mechanism, users waiting at the facilities, may take up the service for free, if the person who booked the time failed to arrive.

"We ask the department to consider disallowing users to hire the facilities for a certain period," Lai remarked, adding such administrative penalty arrangements are adopted by other sports organizations.

The Ombudsman recommended the department keep watch for undisguised online touting and conduct follow-up investigations.

"Due to insufficient supply of sports facilities, we do not guarantee all problems can be solved once the department accepts all our recommendations," Lai said. "Whenever there is a new measure in place, some people can always make a way to dodge it. Therefore, the department should communicate with all stake holders to come up with up-to-date tactics to stop touting."

A LCSD spokesman said the department has implemented a number of measures since September, 2011, to improve the booking and allocation mechanism, such as ceasing to accept identity documents other than the Hong Kong identity cards for online registration and requiring all venue staff to enforce all the check-in procedures by verifying the identity documents of people arriving to take up bookings.

mingyeung@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 09/20/2012 page1)