0003230
G.F. 323
CONFIDENTIAL
1
16.
b)
8
with executive powers, holding public meetings and including official, nominated
and elected members the pace and extent
of development being capable of regulation.
The continued development of means whereby
ordinary people can bring pressure to bear
on the executive authorities through geo-
graphically based advisory organisations.
As regards the first point the concept is fairly straight-
forward. We already have for example a Board of Education, a Labour
Advisory Board, a Medical Advisory Board, a Social Welfare Advisory
Committee, a Transport Advisory Committee. These bodies today are
not much different in kind from the Urban Council of early post-war
years. The Urban Council has developed politically whilst the
others have not. The proposal is that one or more of these bodies,
and perhaps others, should now be developed along the lines that
the Urban Council has pioneered. Important steps in development can
be set down.
17. The first step is to give prominence to the activities of a
consultative body by reports and other means until in the public eye
it gains identity and status as an important element in the process of forming policy for the sphere of business with which it deals.
The Advisory Committce on Public Transport achieved such status during
the chairmanship of the Hon. Y.K. Kan. This Committee was advisory, it had no elected members, it never met in public yet it attracted public interest and support and wielded quite considerable political power. Its Chairman spoke in public and even in the Legislative Council in a responsible and independent manner as an advocate of the policies put forward by the committee or by way of comment on issues engaging public interest from time to time.
/18.