CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
Urban Council
The Urban Council is a statutory council with responsibilities for the provision of municipal services to almost 3.6 million people in the urban areas. The Urban Council has considerable executive authority and is charged with full responsibility for a wide range of municipal functions. These functions include street cleansing, refuse collection, control of environmental hygiene, and ensuring the hygienic handling and preparation of food in restaurants, shops, abattoirs and other places.
The Urban Council is also the authority for the control of hawkers and street-traders, although some of this devolves on the police as the council does not have the manpower or finance to shoulder the whole burden.
Within the urban area, the council also provides and manages all public recreation and sporting facilities such as swimming pools, parks, playgrounds, indoor and outdoor stadia, tennis courts, football grounds, squash courts and basketball courts, and promotes a large number of sports at district level. The new Hong Kong Park with an area of 10 hectares was opened in May 1991. This project cost in excess of $300 million and was funded jointly by the council and the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club.
The council manages museums, public libraries and several major cultural venues and multi-purpose facilities, including the City Hall, Queen Elizabeth Stadium and the Hong Kong Coliseum. A major Science Museum and a new Museum of Art were opened in April and November 1991 respectively. The Hong Kong Cultural Centre, opened in November 1989, contains a 2 100-seat concert hall, a theatre seating 1 700 and a studio theatre accommodating about 500 persons. Despite the new facilities, the City Hall Concert Hall and Theatre continue to be heavily booked. The council promotes cultural performances and runs a comprehensive programme of public entertainment throughout the urban area.
The council consists of 40 members, 15 elected from district constituencies, 15 appointed by the Governor and 10 representative members from the urban district boards. It meets in public once a month when it passes by-laws and deals with finances, formal motions and questions on its activities. The routine business of the Urban Council is conducted by the Standing Committee of the whole council, supported by 12 select committees and 17 working groups or sub-committees.
As from November 1, 1991, all the council's Select Committees as well as the Keep Hong Kong Clean Committee have opened their meetings to the public.
The council's chief executive is the Director of Urban Services, who controls the operations of the Urban Services Department with a staff of 16 300. The director is charged with carrying out the council's policies and implementing its decisions.
The council is financially autonomous and during 1990–91 spent about $3,499 million on council-controlled activities and projects. It is financed by a share of the rates which forms the main part of its income, with the balance coming from various licence fees and other charges.
The council has individual or collective ward offices spread throughout the urban area where councillors deal with and answer complaints from the public on a wide variety of matters. Although the majority of matters raised lie outside the council's jurisdiction, councillors are often able to assist and obtain redress for the public, where appropriate, from the various government departments and public bodies.
The council receives numerous mayors, lord mayors and other state, provincial and city dignitaries from many countries each year. During 1991, these included the Lord Mayor of
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