Sports Ground Touts To Face Tougher Penalties

People who cash in by hogging bookings for public sports and recreation facilities are to face tougher penalties including lengthy bans as officials clamp down on touting activities, the government said on Monday.

The Leisure and Cultural Services Department said it was also working on a system that will introduce a ballot for bookings instead of a purely first-come, first-served arrangement as it seeks to weed out those who book facilities with the intention of selling the use of the facilities at a profit.

The department says that from November 1 it will ban anyone who books a facility and fails to use it twice in a 60-day period from making a new booking for the subsequent 90 days. At present, people are only banned if they fail to honour bookings twice in 30 days.

People who are found to have transferred the use of a a user permit for a particular facility without authorisation will be suspended from booking sports facilities for 360 days, doubling the current penalty.

The department is also tightening up the rules for booking natural and artifical turf football pitches through its online Leisure Link system. As well as giving their own user number, they'll also have to submit the details of four other registered users.

The person who makes the booking and three of the four other registered users will have to show their identity documents and any qualifications that are required before kicking off their session.

The department will also bring forward the time at which people are allowed to try to book a session cancelled by other users. They'll open up from 7am, instead of 7.30am. A department spokesman said the change meant cancelled bookings would open up at the same time as other types of bookings.

The spokesman said the department would monitor how well the new measures work and would take further action against touts if necessary.

Meanwhile the department said it was developing the new booking system and was asking members of the public to fill in a new survey on how ballot priorities should be set. People can take part by visiting public leisure facilities in November, or via the department website.