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DR. BELL:-Mr. Chairman, may I ask you to ensure that somebody lays down the conditions for chimneys, in view of the fact that according to the Vice-Chairman's answer to my question that it is unlikely that there will be any legislation passed in the near future which will enable this Council to insist upon the use of smokeless fuels. He was answering the question in which I remarked that air pollution was increasing, noticeably increasing, and if nobody is in control of who puts up a chimney anywhere, or what sort of chimney is going to be built, what is going to happen to air pollution?
MR. BERNACCHI:-Mr. Chairman, if nobody is going to answer DR. BELL's supplementary question, may I ask a further supplementary which I hope somebody will answer, and that is, does the Buildings Ordinance or Regulations give the Building Authority any power to regulate factory chimneys and the height of factory chimneys?
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS:-I am always hesitant, Mr. Chairman, in answering these legal questions without having the Ordinance in front of me. I think the answer is "no", I will certainly check it up. The Ordinance lays down how the chimney should be built, if the chimney is to be built, but I do not think it lays down when and where chimneys should be provided-if you follow the difference.
DR. BELL: Mr. Chairman, I must ask you whether or not you are aware that in fact I have written to you about another complaint of factory chimneys, in another residential area in Kowloon?
CHAIRMAN:-I deal with so many complaints. (Laughter). Sometimes my memory doesn't embrace them all. May I ask when this second letter to which you refer was sent to me?
DR. BELL:Mr. Chairman, I refer to a letter which I sent you two weeks ago, from the Sham Shui Po Ward office. A gentleman came and complained of smoke nuisance in Po On Road in Sham Shui Po, from four factories with chimneys in that area.
CHAIRMAN: I think I did receive your letter, and I passed it to the appropriate Assistant Director for action to be pursued. We will reply to you as soon as we can.
DR. BELL:-Mr. Chairman, I hope in view of the supplementaries asked today, and the seriousness of this position of chimneys in Kowloon, that you will start an investigation regarding this, and will see that there is somebody or some department which is responsible for the height, the size, the shape and the situation of the chimneys in the residential areas of Kowloon, particularly in my ward. (Laughter).
MR. SALES: -Sir, may my ward be included too?
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DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES:-Sir, I hope all the questions, the supplementary questions that Dr. BELL has asked, have been answered as far as possible. There is a Clean Air Ordinance as members are aware. There are only two smoke controlled areas in Hong Kong, both connected with the Airport. One is at North Point and one is Kwun Tong. There is a third one proposed for Tsuen Wan, and there are no other smoke controlled areas in the Colony.
DR. BELL:-Mr. Chairman, in view of that statement by the Vice-Chairman, I would suggest the attention of every Council in this Colony is drawn to this, because as I have said already, air pollution is noticeably increasing throughout the Colony, both from ships, cars, chimneys and everything else, and it probably should be that legislation should be enacted to prevent the use of fuels causing this type of nuisance.
MR. BERNACCHI: Mr. Chairman, I am very concerned about paragraph 3 of your answer, the Vice-Chairman's answer, and it links up with my answer that I have to give to Mr. SALES' question. We make byelaws, and some persons in Hong Kong are completely flaunting these byelaws. Now can something be done so that this Council has a greater say in gaining the effective administration of the byelaws we lay down? It is all very well for this Council to lay down byelaws, but if some members of the public completely flaunt them, and we are powerless to do anything about it, then for myself I would prefer that no byelaws be made.
MR. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, the answer seems to be that if the Council is unable to enforce its byelaws, its regulations and its requests through lack of co-operation on the part of the Police, then the Council ought to have its own Police Force.
(18) MR. CHEUNG WING-IN asked the following question:
Many rubbish collection points in the city areas particularly those in side streets not in full public view have become rubbish dumping grounds constituting a menace to public health and nuisance to the entire neighbourhood. What steps (if any) have been taken by the Department to abate such nuisance? Have remedial measures like the erection of warning notices at the collection points and prosecutions for dumping offences been considered by the Council?
DR. R. H. S. LEE, CHAIRMAN OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows:
I assume that the question does not refer to conditions during the days prior to Chinese New Year when the volume of
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