Urging protesters to move to parks in view of serious impacts of road blockages

Participants in the "Occupy Central" movement have been occupying several trunk roads for 17 days, causing serious impacts on Hong Kong. These include traffic congestion, inconvenience to people going to work and students going to school, substantial income drops for people working in the transportation industry and business losses for shops in the areas affected.

During this period, the Government, the Police and the people affected have shown the utmost patience and let protesters fully express their views and demands. However, road blockages have been disrupting people's daily life for quite a while, and therefore should not be allowed to continue indefinitely.

After appealing to the protesters for days, the Police removed some of the barricades in Mong Kok, Central, Causeway Bay and Admiralty yesterday and today to reopen some of the trunk roads. While traffic on Hong Kong Island this afternoon has improved compared with yesterday, the general public hope that other roads being blocked can be reopened as soon as possible. The Police will keep up their efforts in resuming normal traffic flow on all roads having regard to the actual circumstances.

As recommended by the Government yesterday, protesters who still wish to gather may use bigger venues where congregations will not cause obstruction to traffic and normal life, such as Tamar Park, the Central and Western District Promenade (Central Section), the Central Lawn of Victoria Park and MacPherson Playground in Mong Kok.

October 14, 2014