HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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made filthy by the stuff which comes out of the exhaust fans of a restaurant, and therefore occupants of domestic flats must suffer in consequence?
CHAIRMAN: -Dr. BELL, I have to point out that that particular supplementary contains an imputation-"we do not care a hoot" (Laughter) but still the substance of your remarks should also be referred to the Food and Food Premises Select Committee.
DR. BELL:-I would like that to happen, Sir. A further supplementary question. Do I understand from the reply that if the nuisance caused by the licensed premises is not completely abated after complaints to this Council, that the only step that the complainant can take is to go to Court?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES:-The Department goes to Court and asks for a prohibition order or abatement order.
DR. BELL:-Mr. Chairman, I am anxious to know what the complainant does, because most of the complaints of this nature come to this Council, and one of the things I asked in my question was: "If such nuisance is in existence by what means can the occupants affected have the nuisance abated completely?" Could I have an answer to that then?
CHAIRMAN:-Dr. BELL, I do not know whether there is an answer to the question "how they can have it abated completely". The answer which has been prepared and read out says that complaints should be made to the Department.
DR. BELL: Mr. Chairman, is it not correct that the answer also says, according to the Deputy Director, that the Department must go to Court if it's not completely abated? Therefore if the decision is with the Department, and the Department decides not to go to Court, what happens to the complainant?
CHAIRMAN:-Dr. BELL, the Department will go to Court provided it can supply sufficient evidence to secure a conviction. If the complainant is not satisfied with the action of the Department, the complainant also has a right under common law to go to Court.
DR. BELL:-Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
(4) DR. A. M. S. BELL asked the following question:
Further to my questions at the meetings of this Council in February and May of this year can the Chairman please make public the result of his enquiries as to who is responsible for chimneys particularly of food factories and restaurants which he has given to me by personal letter?
THE CHAIRMAN replied as follows:-
The answer depends upon what is meant by "responsible for chimneys". As far as I am aware the only responsibility which the Legislature has so far recognized as existing in regard to chimneys concerns their structural safety. This aspect is controlled by the Building (Construction) Regulations 1956, and the Building Authority is the authority responsible for enforcement of the Regulations. The Regulations draw no distinction between the chimneys of food factories or restaurants and other chimneys, and, as I have said, are concerned with the chimneys themselves, not with what passes up them.
As regards the smoke emanating from chimneys, the Legislature in 1959 passed an Ordinance to make provision for restricting pollution of the air, entitled the Clean Air Ordinance. Theoretically speaking, under this Ordinance a smoke abatement officer, that is, an Air Traffic Control Officer, or a Factory Inspector, a Health Officer or a Health Inspector, may notify the existence of a smoke nuisance as soon as practicable after he has become aware of it to the occupier of any premises in which any chimney by the emission of smoke is causing a nuisance, and require reduction of the emission to a specified extent (or, if an aircraft is imperilled, complete elimination). Such control measures, applicable to large scale industrial pollution of the air or framed for the safety of aircraft, with fines ranging from $2,000 to $10,000 seem less applicable to the smoke from food factories or restaurants -objective tests of the density of such smoke in order to establish a nuisance or the extent to which the smoke should be reduced are difficult to apply, and the smoke may be intermittent, or vary in intensity, whilst part of the time it occurs at night.
His Excellency the Governor has recently approved the appointment of a Committee to investigate existing problems of air pollution, to consider the controls that exist, and how these can be improved. Its membership and terms of reference are under consideration and should shortly be known. I shall ensure that the problem posed by the smoke and fumes from restaurant and food factory chimneys is brought to the notice of the Committee.
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