The Pearl Report this evening (Monday 11 Feb) at 8pm will feature a story on "public minor works". It will also be available to watch online. and repeated Tuesday 12 Feb at 1:35 am and Saturday 16 Feb at 11:35 am.

The focus of the story is works such as the bike park or sitting out area in Tai Peng in general. This started as a means for government to provide essential funding for simple things like repairing a well or making a path. Currently the budget allowable is HK$20 million - with no requirement to engage an architect or guidelines for design - in fact, the District Offices under the Home Affairs dept do not have access to an architect, but they just go ahead and do these projects anyway.

This is happening all over Hong Kong, resulting in ugly concrete and railings (as the budget does not allow for any maintenance - they therefore chose materials that require low or no maintenance and cannot do simple things like planting). So the programme also looks at other areas - in light of the Chief Executive promising to increase the budget for these projects to HK$100 million.

Includes interviews with District Councillors (Amy Yung from DB and Yu Lai Fan) and Home Affairs.

Thank you Alan for raising this.... over the holiday we might all have missed it. Any comments anyone?