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Police today (June 17) have issued the Letter of No Objection (LONO) to the organiser of the public meetings and procession to be held on July 1. To ensure public safety and public order and to strike a balance between the rights of the participants and other members of the public and road users, Police have imposed a number of conditions upon the public events.
Police were notified by an organisation on April 22 of its intention to hold public meetings and procession on July 1. The organiser then revised the details of the public meetings and procession on May 16 and June 11. A public meeting will be held at the Victoria Park at 1.30pm while the public procession will start at 2.30pm and proceed along Causeway Road, Irving Street, Pennington Street, Yee Wo Street, Hennessy Road, Queensway, Des Voeux Road Central and finish at Chater Road Pedestrian Precinct where another public meeting will be held in the vicinity thereat until 11pm.
Upon receipt of the notification, Police maintained close communication with the organiser and offered advice and assistance. Four meetings and a site visit to the intended location of the public meetings and the route of the procession have been conducted. The Independent Police Complains Council Secretariat staff also attended every meeting and the site visit as observers.
The public meeting at the destination of the procession will cover the area near Des Voeux Road Central and the tram service (from Causeway Bay to Central) will be suspended for a quite a long period of time. With due note of the safety of the participants as well as other members of the public and the impact upon the Hong Kong Island traffic conditions, Police have conducted a thorough risk assessment. In order to strike a balance between the rights of all the parties concerned, including the request from the organiser on road lanes for the procession, Police have issued the LONO today with a number of conditions imposed upon the public events including:
* Police will arrange for the public procession to proceed along the westbound lanes of the aforesaid procession route as well as the eastbound and westbound tram lanes. The eastbound and westbound tram lanes designated for the procession include the section in between Pennington Street and Heard Street, and the section in between Anton Street and Pedder Street;
* In case the venue of meeting being held in the Central District (i.e. the Chater Road Pedestrian Precinct, that section of Ice House Street in between Chater Road and Des Voeux Road Central, Statue Square, the eastbound and westbound vehicular lanes of Des Voeux Road Central between Jackson Road and Pedder Street (including the eastbound and westbound tram lanes), and Chater Garden) is nearly filled to its capacity, the organiser shall use best endeavours to call on those procession participants who are unable to enter the venue of the meeting to disperse in the western direction by proceeding along the southern pavement of Des Voeux Road Central and the pavement of Queen¡¦s Road Central;
* The organiser shall use best endeavours to assist Police to ensure that the stalls or activities of participants for fund-raising, selling or any other propaganda purpose will not cause any unreasonable obstruction to the procession, nor endanger the safety of the procession or other road users.
It is the policy of Police to help people conduct peaceful public activities and it is the duty of Police to adopt measures to ensure public safety and order. Police will cooperate with the organiser to arrange proper crowd management in order to facilitate a smooth and orderly procession.
The LONO has been uploaded to Police Public Page (www.police.gov.hk) for public viewing.
Police Report No.352
Ends/Monday, June 17, 2013
Issued at HKT 22:51
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