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Police today (January 24) have issued the Letter of No Objection (LONO) to the organiser of the public meetings and procession to be held on February 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 event.
Police were notified by an organisation on December 19, 2014 of its intention to hold public meetings and procession on Hong Kong Island on February 1, 2015. The organiser then revised the details of the public meetings and procession on January 9 and 14, 2015. A public meeting will be held at the Victoria Park at 1.30 pm while the procession will start at 2 pm and proceed along Causeway Road, Leighton 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 11.59 pm.
Upon receipt of the notification, Police maintained close communication with the organiser and offered advice and assistance. A meeting was held with the organiser. The Independent Police Complaints Council Secretariat staff also attended the meeting as observers.
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, Police issued the LONO to the organiser today with a number of conditions imposed upon this public event. The conditions and considerations are as follows:
*Arrangements for the meeting in Victoria Park
The public meeting will be held between 1.30 pm and 2 pm at the central lawn in Victoria Park.
*Starting time of the procession
According to the past arrangements made by the Police and the organiser in handling similar public order events, the Police, upon assessment, have decided that the public procession is to commence at 2 pm or when about 85 per cent of the area of the central lawn in the Park has been occupied by participants of the meeting and those waiting for the procession (whichever is earlier).
*Arrangements for the procession route
In consideration of the safety of the procession participants and members of the public, as well as the rights of other road users, the Police will arrange the public procession to proceed along the westbound carriageway of the aforesaid procession route, the eastbound and westbound carriageways of Des Voeux Road Central, 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; whereas the eastbound carriageways of Causeway Road, Yee Wo Street, Hennessy Road and Queensway will be reserved for use by emergency vehicles and other road users.
*Arrangements for the meeting in Central
The public meeting will be held between 5 pm and 11.59 pm at Chater Road Pedestrian Precinct, the section of Ice House Street between Chater Road and Des Voeux Road Central, Statue Square, eastbound and westbound vehicular lanes (including the eastbound and westbound tram lanes) of Des Voeux Road Central between Jackson Road and Pedder Street and Chater Garden.
In case the venue of the meeting in Central District is saturated and heavily congested with people posing risks to public safety and public order, the organiser shall make best endeavours to assist the Police to call on those procession participants who are unable to enter the venue of the meeting to disperse in a western direction by proceeding along the southern pavement of Des Voeux Road Central and the pavement of Queen¡¦s Road Central.
The organiser shall make best endeavours to assist the Police in calling upon participants to disperse in an orderly manner on conclusion of the public meeting in the Central District, and arrange for the clearing up of all settings right after the public meeting, so that the roads within the venue of the public meeting could be reopened to other road users as soon as possible.
The Police will also implement the following crowd safety management measures on the day of event besides the above conditions:
*Arrangement on the road crossing zones outside SOGO Department Store and at Paterson Street
Experiences have shown that during large-scale processions, a huge number of participants crossed Yee Wo Street by way of the pedestrian crossing outside the SOGO Department Store and at Paterson Street, with the intention of joining the procession from Victoria Park. This led to serious obstruction and delayed the progress of the procession, and also seriously affected traffic flow on the eastbound carriageway and its use by emergency vehicles, thereby severely threatening public safety and public order. For this reason, the Police will temporarily close these two pedestrian crossings during the procession. The organiser shall endeavour to appeal to participants not to join the procession by way of the two said pedestrian crossings.
*Arrangements for the vehicle used for leading the procession
The organiser shall make best endeavours to assist the Police in ensuring that the moving speed of the leading vehicle and the participants along the route will not cause any unreasonable delay or obstruction to the procession, other road users or the traffic flow, posing risks to public safety and public order. The leading vehicle has to comply with the instructions given by the Police along the route (including the speed of the vehicle and the instructions of stopping or moving forward) and maintain an appropriate safety distance from the procession.
*Arrangements on prevention of illegal road occupations
In view of the illegal road occupation earlier occurred on Hong Kong Island and based on the experience gained from the occupation on Lung Wo Road, Arsenal Street and Mong Kok thereafter, it is believed that those supporting the illegal occupation are likely to seize the opportunity to reoccupy roads which have been now re-opened to traffic or other roads.
Based on the above considerations, in order to maintain public safety and public order, the organiser shall provide sufficient marshals to make their best endeavours to remind participants to proceed in a safe manner, follow the instructions given by the Police throughout the meetings and procession, and make their best endeavours to assist the Police in appealing to protestors to stop their illegal act in case when possible illegal occupation of roads occurred.
It is the policy of Police to facilitate lawful and peaceful public events and it is the duty of Police to adopt effective measures to maintain public safety and public order. Police will cooperate closely with the organiser to implement appropriate crowd management measures to ensure that the public event is held in a safe and orderly manner.
The LONO has been uploaded to Police Website (www.police.gov.hk) for public viewing.
Ends/Saturday, January 24, 2015
Issued at HKT 22:47
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