District councillors forced to open remote constituency offices
Some district councillors find renting offices in their constituencies tough because of costs and other reasons, leaving voters with far to go
More than a year after being elected as a district councillor, Joseph Chan Ho-lim is still struggling to find an office in his Peak constituency. For now, he is making do with a 400 sq ft office a half-hour journey away, which costs more than half his HK$22,000 monthly expenses allowance.
While Tai Po councillor Ray Au Chun-wah may appear to have less of a problem, with his office a 10-minute walk away, he says that's too far for some voters.
Joseph Chan says the government should find councillors office space in government properties, and give people like him a higher monthly allowance by taking into account rental costs in different districts.
Au says the government should designate offices for each of the city's 400-plus councillors.
Chan, of the Liberal Party, won his seat on The Peak in November last year, yet a combination of high rents and landlords' unwillingness to rent an office to him - because land leases restrict them to commercial tenants - had made it impossible for him to find a base there.