BACKGROUND NOTE
CONFIDENTIAL
Annex to Note No. 5
REORGANISATION OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN HONG KONG
Urban Council
Existing Local Government Bodies
The Urban Council has statutory responsibility for
operating the basic sanitary services in the urban areas
of Hong Kong/Kowloon and also a variety of other duties
in the field of public health, such as the supervision of
food premises, hawkers, operation of slaughter houses and
pest control; it also has responsibilities for the removal
and resettlement of squatters within the urban areas. It is empowered to make byelaws for the regulation and control
of these matters, subject to the approval of the Legislative Council. It has, however, no rating powers and its
responsibilities are carried out through the Urban Services Department (a Government Department) the Director of which
is Chairman of the Council.
The term
2. In addition to the Chairman, the Council consists of five ex officio and twenty unofficial members, of whom ten are elected and ten are appointed by the Governor. of office of the unofficial members is four years. Urban Council elections, at which half of the elected seats are contested are held bi-annually. In spite of considerable
coverage in the press and radio, public interest is low.
3. In 1965 the decision was taken to extend the franchise
for Urban Council elections to an estimated 240,000. Some twenty-three categories of persons have been included, the most numerous of which are persons on the jury list, tax- payers, teachers, members of the Defence Force and Auxiliary Services, ratepayers, staff and students of the universities, registered nurses and midwives and holders of the equivalent of school certificate or a technical college diploma. A qualification of three years' ordinary residence in Hong Kong is also required. In the event, only some 26,000
persons have registered as electors which is some 3,000
CONFIDENTIAL
/ less