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MR. CHEONG-LEEN : Mr. Chairman, I must say that the reply is quite satisfactory, but I am rather mystified by what is meant by "manning scale". Could the Commissioner please elucidate?
COMMISSIONER for RESETTLEMENT: --I am sorry. That perhaps is establishment jargon. (Laughter). Taking the Estates Division as an example, we have recently had approval to revise the manning scale, which is one Assistant Resettlement Officer in charge of the estate, with three or four staff officers assisting him, and then one officer per so many blocks or so many tenancies. From the Area Officers down to the labourer grades, the scale is expressed in terms of so many officers either per estate or per block or per tenancy.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN: --Thank you.
(7) MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN asked the following question:-
(a) Will the Chairman please state what is being done by the Urban Services Department to improve the sanitation and cleanliness in multi-storey buildings in the urban areas? (b) Does the Chairman know how many cleansing companies are serving multi-storey buildings?
(c) To what extent has the Urban Services Department considered the suggestion that cleansing companies be licensed with a view to improving the standard of efficiency and service of such companies in the interest of public health? (d) Has the Director of Urban Services considered the setting up of training courses for the personnel of such companies?
THE CHAIRMAN replied as follows:-
In regard to the first part of the question, in addition to formal house inspections carried out twice yearly by District Health Inspectors and special inspections carried out on complaints, all domestic, multi-storey buildings with individual flat owners in the urban areas are visited once a month. During these monthly inspections special attention is given to accumulations of refuse on window ledges and in air shafts. Where such accumulations are found, steps are taken, with the assistance of the occupants responsible and caretaker staff, to remove them. Under by-law 19 of the Public Cleansing and Prevention of Nuisances By-laws 1960, householders are required to possess dustbins and when these are discovered to be absent, summonses are issued. Other contraventions of by-laws discovered during the course of inspection, such as lack of flushing water, are dealt with by serving on the owners concerned a notice to rectify matters.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
It must be remembered that the responsibility for keeping these buildings clean, which in certain instances give rise to considerable sanitary problems, owing to the practices of some tenants, does not lie with the staff of the Urban Services Department. These are private premises and it is the duty of owners to see that stairways and ventilation shafts are kept clean and rubbish collected, so that it may be disposed of by the Urban Services Department.
In answer to the second part of the question, according to the department's records there are 76 cleansing companies serving multi-storey buildings: 61 in Kowloon and 15 in Hong Kong.
In answer to the third part of the question, section 16 of the Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance, 1960 enables the Council, in its discretion, to license persons to provide services for the removal and disposal of house and street refuse. It appears to me to be open to doubt whether cleansing companies, which have been established to look after the internal cleanliness of multi-storey buildings, were intended to be affected by section 16 of the Ordinance, which seems to be aimed at controlling private refuse collectors. The department has given careful thought to your proposal that cleansing companies operating in multi-storey buildings should be licensed, but opinion is against it. I am, however, willing to refer this question to the Environmental Hygiene Select Committee for consideration, if you so desire, although I believe that it was first considered by that Select Committee in 1959 and has been discussed on occasion since that time.
In answer to the fourth part of the question, two training courses for private refuse collectors have been held: one in 1959 and another in 1963. Consideration is being given to the possibility of extending such training.
MR. BERNACCHI :-Surely, Mr. Chairman, the fault really lies in the fact that in many cases owners of multi-storey buildings sell them off flat by flat, and make inadequate provision for services communal to the whole multi-storey building.
CHAIRMAN:-I agree with you, Sir.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, what has happened to the proposal of the Working Party on Sub-divided Buildings in which it was
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