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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
(3) that a number of 16-storey blocks in Tsz Wan Shan Estate have been occupied for six months but there is still no lift service in these blocks.
I am glad to have this opportunity of saying that there is no record of any such incident as that mentioned in the first allegation at any block in this estate. I find it difficult to believe that, had it really occurred, it would not have come to the notice of the estate staff, and subsequently of the Resettlement Management Select Committee. Enquiries made since the report appeared have failed to produce any evidence in support of the story. Members may draw their own conclusions about the reliability of the report from the fact that there is no block number 55 in this estate, nor has any block got a 17th floor.
It follows, from what I have already said, that the second allegation is untrue.
The third allegation is also untrue.
The newspaper concerned sent a reporter to a press conference at Tsz Wan Shan on the 20th July where those attending were briefed on the lift situation and shown the lifts in blocks 57 and 58 which were also mentioned in the article in question. The same newspaper published another article on the subject in its issue of the 21st July, but failed to retract the unfounded statement which it had published on the 19th.
Blocks 57, 58 and 59 at Tsz Wan Shan are interconnected and have 6 lifts in operation with one still to be completed. If a breakdown occurs, residents can take a lift from the ground floor in another of this group of blocks and walk to their rooms through the connecting passages. Both lifts in block 58 were out of action together for 2 weeks during July, but this does not mean that everyone in that block had to walk up stairs.
The number of breakdowns in the lift service occurring in resettlement estates has been a matter for concern: they are generally caused by overloading or misuse. I am glad to say that the agents who are responsible for maintaining them have been prompt and efficient in carrying out repairs. In order to reduce the number of breakdowns, the following action has already been taken:
(1) at intake, new tenants are being given simple instructions on the use and misuse of lifts;
(2) inquiries are being made with a view to installing devices that will prevent existing lifts from moving if they are overloaded. I understand that the Public Works Department is also considering the provision of such devices in all new lifts.
In order to reduce the time-lag between the occurrence of a breakdown and the release of any people trapped in a lift, the Resettlement Department is discussing with the maintenance companies the stationing of an emergency maintenance crew within each group of estates in which their lifts are installed.
As regards the last part of the question, it is not necessary for the lift service to be in operation when a 16-storey block is ready for occupation since only the lower floors are occupied first, and the lifts do not serve these floors. Nevertheless, except in the case of block 23 at Tung Tau Estate, the lifts have in fact always been in operation before a block is taken over from the Public Works Department. The delay at Tung Tau was due to the theft of essential parts before the lifts had been completed.
MR. CHEUNG:- Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank Mr. Li for his very detailed reply. May I ask either Mr. Li or the Commissioner for Resettlement, through you, what was the cause of the two lifts being out of action for two weeks in July? Two weeks seems to me an unduly long time to effect repairs to the lifts.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:- I am afraid, Mr. Chairman, I really cannot answer that question, but I will endeavour to find out and give Mr. CHEUNG Wing-in a written reply later.
MR. CHEUNG:- Thank you.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:- Mr. Chairman, I presume that this reply was almost prepared in toto by the Resettlement Department, in view of the fact that the word "allegation" was mentioned so many times. May I ask the Commissioner through you, in regard to the last sentence in paragraph 9 where mention was made that the delay was due to the theft of essential parts before the lift service was installed, why did it take such a long time to have these essential parts replaced, if the service of the companies which are responsible for installing these lifts was all that good?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:- I cannot say exactly how long it took to have the essential parts replaced, but I understand that this particular supplier had very few spare parts in the Colony.
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