FORCE members can enjoy two new beach houses in South Bay for a reasonable fee this summer thanks to the Sports and Recreation Division.

"Since the Shek O Beach Leisure Centre closed, Personnel Services Branch and the Planning and Development Branch have made all efforts to provide recreation facilities to Force members on Hong Kong Island. The provision of these two beach houses is only an interim arrangement. We still rely on the Planning and Development Branch to look for apermanent site to serve this purpose," said Sports and Recreation's Senior Inspector Sally Law Chan Wai-kuen.

South Bay is a beautiful sandy beach about a 30-minute walk or a 5-minute drive (parking facilities are available) from Repulse Bay. Shuttle bus route number 44R goes between Repulse Bay and Middle Bay to South Bay.

The holiday houses, cleaned and managed by the Urban Services Department, are situated at the back edge of the beach with marvelous views over South Bay. The scenery and tranquil environment is ideal for colleagues, their families and friends to enjoy a day at the beach.

Each beach house is about 250 square feet with two changing rooms and a sitting area fitted with outdoor furniture. In front are BBQ pits, while showers, public telephones and lockers are provided nearby, close to a restaurant that serves drinks, snacks, fried rice, noodles and BBQ packs.

"We will rent the two beach houses on a trial basis from 1 July to 31 October," said Sally Law Chan Wai-kuen. "If the response is good we will extend the provision on long holidays and next summer. Each beach house rents for $60 on weekdays and $85 on weekends/public holidays. It's half the price that we rent them for from the Urban Services Department." Force members who want to use the facilities contact SSgt Cheng Kwong-yuen: 2804-1135 or 2804-1118.

"We are also planning to open a new recreation centre at Tai Mei Tuk in Tai Po in November," she said. "The building was previously the site of the Police Adventure Training Base attached to PTS."

Features of the recreation centre include: overnight accommodation, catering, a children's playground, video-game room, karaoke lounge, basketball court and table tennis facilities.

"We also have three police recreation centres with overnight accommodation plus recreation facilities on Green Island, in Wong Hau Shan and Tso Wo Hang," said Sally. "We are planning to operate more centres to cope with the needs of police officers in different regions. We hope that every region will have a recreation centre eventually."

In order to improve the quality of service of 32 holiday facilities which provide overnight accommodation for Force members in Hong Kong and Macau, the Holiday Facilities and Recreation Centres Unit will conduct an opinion survey of facility users between June and Sept. Copies of the questionnaire will be available in all 32 facilities.