Submission to the Transport Department
RE: Village Vehicles in Discovery Bay, Lantau
PURPOSE
To achieve quicker and easier permission for import of new (replacement) Village Vehicles to Discovery Bay.
BACKGROUND
Discovery Bay is a car-free community of 20,000 in the north-east corner of Lantau Island.
It is reached by regular ferries from Central and by buses and taxis via a tunnel in the north-west.
Only DB-registered vehicles are allowed on the roads in Discovery Bay. Outside commercial vehicles can enter DB via the tunnel, with a permission slip and for a limited time only.
Other than local Buses and Hire cars operated by DBTSL, the only vehicles allowed are Golf Carts, registered as Village Vehicles (VV) under Regulation Cap 374.
There are 517 (??TBC) licences for Golf Cart VVs in Discovery Bay. That is a fixed number and will not go up. Therefore this submission is not for new golf carts, but for the replacement of old golf carts, and for that replacement to be made easier.
Golf Carts may only be purchased by owners of property in DB, at a cost set by the market. Sales are between individuals. Price have ranged up to $2.5 million. Therefore the value of the fleet of Golf Carts is currently over $1 Billion.
The fleet is made up of mostly American-made EZ-Go golf carts and Japanese-made Yamaha carts (hereafter "Old Yamaha"). In recent years there have been some new-style Yamaha Carts ("New Yamaha") imported, each new one replacing an existing Cart that must be taken off the road.
PROBLEM
Our fleet of Golf Carts is aging.
It is now about 50 years old (??TBC).
Spare parts and replacement engines for the older models of EZ-Go and Old Yamahas are becoming difficult if not impossible to find anywhere in the world.
Although there have been some VV replacements by New Yamahas, these have been coming in only slowly, as the manufacturer does not place a high priority on the supply to Discovery Bay. People awaiting replacement are having to wait at least six months (??TBC) and even longer in some cases.
The cost of the replacements has gone up from an already steep $95,000 (??TBC) to a staggering $350,000 (??TBC). This is more than the cost of a decent family sedan car to Hong Kong residents, clearly unfair for the owners of Golf Cart VV licenses in Discovery Bay.
Moreover, the New Yamaha supplier places no priority on supplying spare parts in the event of breakages. There are New Yamahas that have been sitting awaiting spare parts now, at the local repair garage for over six months (??TBC). Again, this is far worse than the situation of people who own ordinary cars in the rest of Hong Kong.
APPLICABLE REGULATIONS (Excerpts)
(Cap. 374, section 12A)
4.
Application for and issue of permit
(1)
Subject to this regulation and to regulation 8 the Commissioner may issue a permit to the owner of a village vehicle authorizing the driving or use of the vehicle on roads.
(2)
An application for a permit shall be made by the owner of the vehicle to the Commissioner in the specified form.
(3)
An application for a permit shall include a certification by the owner of the vehicle that—
(a)
the overall length of the vehicle does not exceed 3.2 m;
(b)
the overall width of the vehicle does not exceed 1.2 m;
(c)
the vehicle is equipped with—
(i)
an adequate braking system capable of being applied when the vehicle is in motion for the purpose of stopping it, and of holding the vehicle immobile;
(ii)
a warning instrument capable of audibly signalling the approach and presence of the vehicle; and
(iii)
a silencer, expansion chamber or other device suitable and sufficient for reducing, as far as may be reasonable, the noise caused by the escape of exhaust gases from the engine;
(d)
the vehicle is so constructed as to render it safe to carry any load that it may reasonably be required to carry; and
(e)
in the case of a golf cart, it is so constructed as to render it safe to carry any passengers that it may reasonably be required to carry.
(Format changes—E.R. 2 of 2012)
(Cap. 374, sections 5 and 6)
23.
Licensing of motor vehicles for use in Lantau only
(1)
Subject to subregulation (1A), a motor vehicle may be used on a road in Lantau only, if the vehicle is licensed under this regulation.
(1A)
Where a motor vehicle is licensed under this regulation and
regulation 26, subregulation (1) shall be construed as permitting the motor vehicle to be used on a road in Lantau or Chek Lap Kok.
(2)
Any person who wishes to have licensed for use only in Lantau a motor vehicle of which he is the registered owner may deliver to the Commissioner an application for such licence in a form specified by the Commissioner and shall pay to the Commissioner one quarter of the appropriate licence fee prescribed in Schedule 2:
Provided that
regulation 21(9) shall apply to an applicant who is a disabled person for the purposes of that regulation and the licence fee payable under this subregulation shall
be— (a)
for a licence for 12 months, one quarter of the licence fee payable under regulation 21(9)(b)(i); and
(b)
for a licence for 4 months, 35% of the licence fee payable under paragraph (a) plus an additional fee of $15.
(3)
The Commissioner may license a motor vehicle for use in Lantau only, and where he does so, he shall cause the vehicle licence to be endorsed with the words “PERMITTED TO BE USED ONLY ON LANTAU” and the characters “祇准在大嶼山使用” in such manner as he shall think fit and shall cause such endorsement to be made on the registration document relating to the vehicle if he thinks fit.
(4)
Subject to this regulation, regulation 21 shall apply in respect of the documents which are required to be submitted with an application for a licence and the licensing of motor vehicles for use in Lantau.
(5)
For the purposes of this regulation,
road
(
道路
) does not include a private road.
(6)
A licence issued under this regulation and having effect immediately before the commencement* of the Road Traffic (Registration and Licensing of Vehicles) (Amendment)
Regulation 1997 (
the Amendment Regulation) shall be taken as a licence issued in accordance with the Regulation as amended by the Amendment Regulation.
Editorial Note:
* Commencement date: 22 May 1997.
23A.
Licensing of motor vehicles for use on private roads in Lantau only
(1)
A motor vehicle may be used on a private road in Lantau only, if the vehicle is licensed under regulation 23 or this regulation.
(2)
Any person who wishes to have licensed for use only on private roads in Lantau a motor vehicle of which he is the registered owner may deliver to the Commissioner an application for such licence in a form specified by the Commissioner and shall pay to the Commissioner one-tenth of the appropriate licence fee prescribed in Schedule 2:
Provided that regulation 21(9) shall apply to an applicant who is a disabled person for the purpose of that regulation and the licence fee payable under this subregulation shall be—
(a)
for a licence for 12 months, one-tenth of the licence fee payable under regulation 21(9)(b)(i); and
(b)
for a licence for 4 months, 35% of the licence fee payable under paragraph (a) plus an additional fee of $15.
(3)
The Commissioner may license a motor vehicle for use on private roads in Lantau only, and where he does so, he shall cause the vehicle licence to be endorsed with the words “PERMITTED TO BE USED ONLY ON PRIVATE ROADS ON LANTAU” and the characters “只准在大嶼山的私家路上行駛” in such manner as he shall think fit and shall cause such endorsement to be made on the registration document relating to the vehicle if he thinks fit.
(4)
Subject to this regulation, regulation 21 shall apply in respect of the documents which are required to be submitted with an application for a licence and the licensing of motor vehicles for use on private roads in Lantau.
(L.N. 21 of 1989)
It is clear from the above excerpts of relevant Regulations that the Transport Department has considerable scope to interpret the VV licensing requirements.
Moreover it is clear from these Regulations that the requirements themselves are not onerous. At least on the fact of the Regulations.
REQUEST
We request that the Transport Department use its discretion under the above regulations to facilitate the quicker entry of suitable VVs for Discovery Bay.
Our suggestion is that VV or VV equivalents that are licensed to drive on private roads in China be allowed into Hong Kong.
It is not clear to us why there ought to be stricter regulations for Hong Kong than on our motherland.
An alternative suggestion is to allow into Hong Kong those vehicles that have been permitted on the roads of the EU or an American state like California, which famously have the most stringent vehicle regulations in the world.
SUMMARY
Our fleet of golf carts is aging. Replacement of them is very difficult. We urge the Transport Department to adopt measures to make the purchase of VVs more in line with the purchase of motor vehicles in the rest of Hong Kong.
With a VV fleet worth over $ 1 billion dollars, the owners of Golf Cart VVs in Discovery Bay are most assuredly not willing to have the fleet depreciate away to nothing. Who would be?
Dear TD: please help us!
CONTACTS
Peter Forsythe (email, etc...)
Jing Lee (email, etc...)
DBSML (email, etc...)
DBTSL (email, etc...)
Others (??TBC)
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