URBAN councillors have made a last-ditch attempt to salvage plans for a long-awaited children's paddling pool in Victoria Park threatened by a $2 billion underground extension to the Mass Transit Railway.
Members of the Urban Council's capital works committee yesterday won an assurance from Deputy Director of Leisure Services, Leung Wai-tong, that he would pass on details of the $107 million pool project to MTR's engineering consultants.
'We urged the Urban Council to submit the whole scheme to the consultants so they can be kept informed of our plans when they do their report,' said committee vice-chairman Jennifer Chow Kit-bing.
She hoped engineers could find a way to protect the pool during construction of the two-kilometre tunnel between Tin Hau and Quarry Bay stations. The link will form part of the Kwun Tong line and is needed to reduce overcrowding at Quarry Bay station where passengers change to Island-line trains.
MTR engineering manager Alastair Budge-Reid said all possible options would be considered before construction of the tunnel begins.
The pool is due for completion in 1998, just before tunnelling is expected to start.
