Government keen to increase parking spaces

The Government is taking a host of initiatives to increase the number of parking spaces, the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Mr Lau Si Io, said today. After a meeting at the Legislative Assembly, Mr Lau told the press that the Government had decided to allocate more spaces for motorcycles when a number of new parking lots open later this year. Moreover, the Government was in discussions with private developers urging them to provide public car parking in new buildings. Furthermore, more parking spaces will be come on stream when parking lots in public housing buildings start to operate. On the issue of property disputes caused by the so-called ''silk paper contract'', Mr Lau said the Government had no intention to demolish buildings constructed on these contracts. Renovation applications for homes in bad conditions on land on such contracts would be considered on a case-by-case basis by the Government, Mr Lau said. However, he stressed that the Government would never allow for change of land use for undeveloped land on ''silk paper contract''.