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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MR. HENRY HU:- Mr. Chairman, I want the Vice-Chairman to confirm that as far as the Urban Council and Urban Services Department and any other Government departments are concerned, Government has no power whatsoever to make public transport be for the service of the public, because from the Vice-Chairman's answer, if I read it correctly, then if some serious matters with regard to public transport happen, what can Government do. Windows and seats are small matters; there may be serious matters such as, for example, some passengers in the bus being badly treated, or a lot of people waiting without a queue service, and over that sort of thing, Government has no jurisdiction or power whatsoever. Is that correct?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES:- There is a body, Sir, called the Advisory Committee on Public Transport, which I think should concern itself with a number of these things. The Council as such and the Urban Services Department cannot be expected to clean windows on buses or trams owned by a private company.
DR. BELL: Mr. Chairman, could the Deputy Director of Medical and Health Services tell me what would happen in the event of your having information that a cholera patient had been travelling in one of the buses? Would you check the seats then for cholera germs?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES:- Certainly. Powers for infectious diseases in any form of transport are covered by the Prevention of the Spread of Infectious Diseases Regulations.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:- Mr. Chairman, the reply given by the Vice-Chairman is most discouraging and highly unsatisfactory, and I therefore would like to have this matter referred to the Environmental Hygiene Select Committee for further discussion.
MR. SALES: Mr. Chairman, in the circumstances, may I as a former member of the Health Education Select Committee, suggest that that is the proper committee to refer this question to, and with your indulgence, Sir, I would like to suggest that that Select Committee has been misguided in spending public money in trying to educate school children when it appears that the Health Education Select Committee should try to teach the Police Force to live in more hygienic conditions, if I am to gather the import of Mr. CHEONG-LEEN's question.
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: The question does not refer to people who throw litter inside the buses; it refers to the keeping clean of the fixed parts of the buses.
DR. BELL:- Mr. Chairman, would you consider forwarding a copy of Mr. Hilton CHEONG-LEEN's original question to the Bus Company and the Tram Company?
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
CHAIRMAN: Gladly.
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MR. MARDEN:- Mr. Chairman, as a Director of the Tramways Company, I must declare my interest on this and suggest that it is perhaps the Health Education Select Committee that should be concerned with it, as most of these things, it appears, are done by the travellers in the bus or the tram, and not by the Tramways Company or the Bus Company themselves.
DR. BELL: Mr. Chairman, is the Director of the Tramways Company suggesting that they are not in any way responsible themselves? That they have no staff responsible for keeping their public transport in a clean condition for the public to use? They charge fares, of course.
MR. SALES: Mr. Chairman, perhaps we have all missed the point entirely. Is it not the correct course to suggest to the Bus Company that they might follow the shining example of the Ferry Company in keeping their windows shiny? (Laughter).
(12) MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN asked the following question:
Is the Director of Urban Services aware that indiscriminate spitting on the floor is quite often tolerated by many owners of small and medium-sized tea-houses and restaurants? What further steps can be taken by the Urban Services Department to seek the active co-operation of the management and personnel in licensed food premises to reduce the incidence of indiscriminate spitting on their premises?
THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES replied as follows:
I am not aware that indiscriminate spitting is being tolerated at present by many owners of small and medium-sized tea-houses and restaurants. Should you, Sir, have specific information that this is the case then action will be taken on receipt of details to curb it.
By-law 9 of the Food Business By-laws 1960 states that “No person shall spit in any food room and no person shall spit in any other part of any food premises except into a spittoon or other receptacle provided for that purpose." When breaches of this by-law are discovered, prosecution follows. It is naturally extremely difficult to catch offenders, but should any spittle be found on the floor by an inspecting officer, action can be taken against the
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