Kennedy Town the perfect spot for a relocated Queen's Pier

As a user of Hong Kong harbour for the past 37 years, I am deeply concerned about the preservation of Queen's Pier.

A pier is no longer a pier when it is not on the waterfront and provides no berthing facilities. Drying up the Queen's Pier is impractical and will make it becoming a bizarre-looking landmark. It should be relocated to Kennedy Town where there is a deserted pier off the old abattoir.

Apart from the No 9 Central Public Pier, the pier at Golden Bauhinia Square and a few landing steps along the harbour front on Hong Kong Island, there is no other covered pier with facilities for people to embark and disembark, in particular in Western District where redevelopment will soon start. Work on the MTR extension is already under way.

Because of the long distance to and from the Central piers, seamen of ocean-going ships moored at the western anchorages cannot afford to come ashore because of the time-consuming passage and expensive transport by launches - it can be more than HK$3,000 for a return trip. A pier in Kennedy Town will shorten the trips and lower the boat hire costs. Outlying Island residents requiring relocation services and travelling at odd hours rely on non-scheduled launch services, as do holidaymakers using services which start from Aberdeen and pick them up in Central. A pier in Kennedy Town would provide them with proper and safe landing facilities and shorten the trip and would ease congestion at the existing facilities in Central harbour.

Kennedy Town is of historical importance. Victoria Road was built in 1857 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Victoria. Kennedy Town, Mount Davis and Davis Street were named after governors. Belcher Street and Belcher Bay were named after Captain Belcher of HMS Sulphur on her first survey trip in Hong Kong in 1841 and Sulphur Channel at Green Island, was named after the ship. It would be appropriate to bring Queen's Pier to a place with all this history.

A pier without the sea and the boats to go alongside it would become lifeless. Rather than simply reminiscing on its loss, let us work to give Queen's Pier a new lease of life.