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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
The problem of multi-storey buildings will continue to multiply if the Government does not take a strong hand. It is a recent phenomenon which outgrows legislation. People must be educated to enjoy modern amenities. There is a give-and-take proposition where a harmonious living together is concerned. The so-called "cooperative" apartments today is an abuse of the word. The promoters sold their apartments and ran away with their responsibilities. Some owners are a scattered and selfish lot. A few are operators in disguise. What we have are tenement slums. How many apartment buildings are free from dubious business activities? All these abuses are at the expense of bona-fide home-makers, for they are in the minority and are constantly at the mercy of the operator-owners. The wide range of problems from sanitation to peaceful enjoyment of the premises would require legislation to govern its planning, house rules, management council, complaints procedure, etc. etc.
As an instance, inconsiderate people, mostly consisting of children and servants, are throwing refuse and waste out of their windows from their upper floors of the multi-storey buildings. The ground floor tenant usually suffers as his yard becomes a garbage and dust dump. So he builds a shed. There the flies and the insects accumulate on the top of the shed. Then the tenant on the first floor has a nuisance and health menace. So he builds a concrete shed over his verandah. The second floor tenant consequently complains that he is having a nuisance and health menace and he reports to the authorities. The ground floor tenant is charged with erecting a structure which is not fire-proof and the first floor tenant is charged with erecting a structure against the building regulations.
These are everyday happenings in the multi-storey buildings. Some kind of regulations or control is necessary to preserve public health and harmony for the residents of these buildings. The Urban Council will do a great service by appointing a committee to carry out a thorough investigation and start to institute remedies.
With these remarks I have pleasure in supporting the motion before the Council.
MR. LI YIU-BOR: - Mr. Chairman, in rising to support your Statement of Progress and Policy tabled this afternoon, I should like first of all to congratulate you, Sir, on the production of a very interesting and comprehensive document outlining the Council's activities for the past year and its main objects for the year to come.
Members will have noticed that during the period under review, as also in other previous periods, the elected members of this Council have worked together most harmoniously with all official and appointed members in Committees. The reason for this close cooperation is that all members have only one object in view, and that is, the interest of
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the general public whom we have dedicated ourselves to serve. True, we have had differences of opinion, but we have been able to make allowances for them, and we have never allowed personal feelings, let alone personal interest, to interfere with our decisions. I believe that when there are elected members on the Legislative Council the same cordial relations will prevail there as they have done in this Council in the public interest.
I welcome the appointment of the first permanent Secretary to this Council, for I think that such an appointment will ensure the continuity of work in this Council and the Urban Services Department. As you are doubtless aware, Sir, a large proportion of the work of this Council falls upon the shoulders of the Secretary, and a new man will take some time before he can acquaint himself with the nature as well as the ramifications of his responsibilities.
The present policy pursued by this Council in connexion with the resettlement of squatters should be continued at least for a few more years, because I believe that any drastic change in our policy at the present juncture will be unwise. After all, resettlement is a gigantic problem for the taxpayers of Hong Kong to handle without assistance from the outside world. However, I should like to see more flatted factories built and more shop-sites made available for allocation to those squatters who carried on a trade or business in their original illegal structures. I feel strongly that it is quite wrong to resettle people without due regard being paid to their means of earning a livelihood.
As medical facilities and education are the main concern of all taxpayers, I feel that the functions of this Council should be expanded to cover these activities. As members are aware, most hospitals and schools in the United Kingdom are founded out of the public purse and maintained and controlled by County or other Councils. Here in Hong Kong, as taxpayers have no elected representatives in the legislature, it is essential that these services should come within the jurisdiction of this Council where there are elected members.
I am not suggesting, Sir, that the Medical Department and the Education Department have been lacking in their efforts to provide facilities in their own fields, but I maintain that they can render even better service as departments working under the Urban Council.
With these very brief comments, Sir, I have pleasure to support your Statement.
MR. WILSON T. S. WANG:- Mr. Chairman, you and the Senior Members have been good enough to extend me your warm welcome for which I am indeed most grateful. May I express the hope that I can safely look for the guidance and assistance of my senior colleagues.
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