Lawmakers to consider cordoning off building
LEGISLATORS have still to make up their minds over a police offer to erect a cordon sanitaire around the Legislative Council to protect politicians, a move members have been reluctant to make in the past.
The proposal was one of several suggestions put forward by the force after two assaults on members last week.
Legislators have previously rejected such a move because they wanted to have better access to the public.
''Police have discussed putting up barriers but legislators said they did not want them as they wouldn't be able to press the flesh,'' a police source said last week.
In 1991, an in-house legislative meeting decided to get rid of metal railings which had been put up every Wednesday outside the council following a 1987 protest by farmers who brought truckloads of pigs into Central district.
''Legislators decided they wanted to be available to demonstrators and protesters alike,'' a senior police officer said. ''The barriers were taken away on October 5, 1991.
''The view of legislators has been that they wanted the people they represent to have access to them, and that view has to be respected.'' Security at the building was the subject of an in-house meeting on Friday, when members discussed possible changes to the regulations covering use of the car park, the area now used by protesters.
Under trial plans, media and petitioners will be separated and barriers installed. But legislators still have to make a final decision on the security changes.
