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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
CHAIRMAN:---I am prepared to say that I have consulted the person you mentioned and he is somewhat reticent about giving an opinion. (Laughter).
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:--I didn't realize that the Chairman of the Urban Council had a dual personality.
MR. SALES:--Mr. Chairman, if Mr. CHEONG-LEEN has no more supplementary questions, may I, with your permission, ask one. Before I do so, may I say how impressed I am with this arrangement of flowers, Mr. Chairman (pointing to a flower bowl in centre of the table). We all think it is a manifestation of your green fingers and we would like to compliment you on your achievement. Mr. Chairman, as regards the second part of your reply to Mr. CHEONG-LEEN's question, may I add the hope that you will ask the relevant sub-committee to consider the desirability of keeping Mr. CHEONG-LEEN's feet on the ground at all times, (Laughter) otherwise he would not have forgotten that No. 4 comes before Nos. 5 and 6. (Mr. CHEONG-LEEN had inadvertently asked Question 5 before Question 4).
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:--May I say in clarification, Mr. Chairman, that I am concerned about this question of keeping the eyes of our younger generation up in the sky instead of on the ground.
MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN asked the following question:—
"(a) Is the Chairman aware that many residents in the urban areas are complaining about the dust and dirt spilling on the ground and flying in the air from uncovered lorries engaged in removing débris from demolished buildings? (b) Will the Chairman be so good as to ask the co-operation of the Director of Public Works and others concerned to ensure that lorries engaged in such work are properly sealed and the débris covered with tarpaulin?"
THE CHAIRMAN replied as follows:
"The answer to the first part of the question is 'No'.
2. As regards the second part, I have consulted my friend, the Director of Public Works and he considers that it would be impracticable to attempt to have the lorries' loads covered, and largely unnecessary. The bulk of the dirt flying in the air or spilling onto the ground comes from the wheels of the lorries.
3. In the case of work at Government sites the Public Works Department already takes action, through Clerks of Works, to prevent excessive waste soil from lorry wheels falling onto the roads.
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It is not possible to take action in regard to lorries operating from sites where private development is taking place, unless the amount of debris deposited is such as to affect adversely the condition of the public highways. In such circumstances any action would have to be taken by the Police on the grounds that the roads were being rendered dangerous."
MOTIONS.
THE CHAIRMAN moved the following motion:
"That the Ventilation By-laws, 1961 be made under section 88 of the Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance, No. 30 of 1960.”
He said: These by-laws are designed to provide for the proper access of light and ventilation to buildings which are used for human habitation or as workplaces, and also to buildings in which businesses specified in the Schedule to the by-laws are carried on. Hairdressing is the only business included in the Schedule at present. It is considered essential that ventilation should be efficient where hairdressing is carried on, because customers frequently spend long periods in such establishments.
Restaurants, dancing establishments, theatres and cinemas have not been included in the Schedule to these by-laws because provision for proper ventilation of such places is made in section 93 of, and the Second Schedule to, the Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance, 1960.
THE VICE-CHAIRMAN seconded.
DR. R. H. S. LEE:--Mr. Chairman, in view of the generally over-crowded conditions in most parts of the urban area, I think it is vitally important to have by-laws of this nature to enforce section 88 of the Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance because, unless these powers are there, it could well be that it will have deleterious effects upon dwellers of tenements. In the majority of cases they are just sub-tenants, and people in the slum areas will pack themselves at the expense of ventilation and light, constituting a health hazard not only to themselves but to others as well. As light and ventilation play such an important part on the health of every urban dweller, irrespective of whether the premises they live in have air-conditioning or not, I think, Sir, and I speak not as Chairman of the Environmental Hygiene Select Committee but as a member of this Council, the whole issue should be dealt with by the Environmental Hygiene Select Committee. There are matters such as obstruction to light and partitioning of cubicles which have nothing to do with the terms of reference of the Air-Conditioning
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