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I may be wrong—that it would be a matter for the police constable on the beat to point out where a street name is deficient, because it overlaps not only with the Public Works Department, but with the Police Department. At the moment it would be extremely difficult for a policeman, even on foot, to know which street he is in. He might have to walk the entire length of the street to see what the name plate said. May I ask therefore if you would draw the attention of the Commissioner of Police to this, because his police constables are more likely to be in a position to point this out?
VICE-CHAIRMAN: I would think that it would be of interest to the police, but the naming of the streets as you know rests with this Council, and the putting up of street signs rests with the Public Works Department. I am inclined to think that the Cleansing Division of the Department, or district health inspectors might be better than police constables for making a survey of streets and street names.
ACTING DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: Mr. Chairman, it is my responsibility to keep the name plates intact, and I will certainly ask the Commissioner of Police to ask his police constables, if they notice a street name plate is missing or damaged, to report it.
DR. BELL: I would be grateful Mr. Chairman. May I say I have found on several occasions, when I wanted to find the address of a house to visit, I have asked the police constable on the beat and he hasn't the foggiest idea of what street he is in.
MR. LI YIU-BOR: Mr. Chairman, I have another suggestion and that is, in future, all the street name plates should be placed higher because they are all damaged by small children.
DR. BELL: Leading on that, may I also ask, Mr. Chairman, that they should not be attached to the houses as is often the case? They should be on a separate stand at the corner of the street where it is very much easier to see and not then obscured by washing poles and other things which are liable to come out from the houses.
VICE-CHAIRMAN: I am sure we can leave the actual siting of the name plates to the Director of Public Works.
MR. SALES: May I suggest that the Councillors responsible for the various wards should make it their own responsibility to ensure that the roads are properly described and the sign plates are where they should be? For example, in the ward which Mr. CHEONG-LEEN and I have, all the name plates are properly put up, and all the roads are properly described, and I fail to see why Dr. BELL is unable to ensure the same good order in her ward. (Laughter).
DR. BELL: Mr. Chairman, unfortunately my ward is not one of the ones which is populated by tourists very much, and so much of the good appearance of our city does seem to depend on whether it is populated by tourists or not. Should the tourists visit one area every effort seems to be made to keep it beautifully clean, and the name plates alright. Mr. SALES is, perhaps, more interested in the tourists than the local inhabitants, and so therefore—(Laughter)—he has been given this ward in Tsim Sha Tsui. I notice he has very little to do there. (Laughter). In Sham Shui Po where it is entirely a local population, and where it is very over-crowded, we lack playgrounds and swimming pools, and the names are very definitely lacking. Perhaps there has been less re-building in that area and so it hasn't been noticed.
MR. SALES: Sir, I am inclined to believe that by the number of times that Dr. BELL has repeated that there is very little to do in my ward she is trying to persuade the press that it is so. I would rather exchange some of my multi-storey buildings with the buildings that exist in Sham Shui Po, then Dr. BELL would appreciate the extent of our problems. We received a complaint, as Mr. CHEONG-LEEN rightly pointed out early in the afternoon, which covered 700 odd tenancies, and we have been persistently pursuing such problems.
(10) Question by Mr. Henry H. L. Hu:
Hong Kong is a very noisy city. What bad effects could this have on the health of the public? Could any serious measures be taken to combat noise, particularly during the night?
VICE-CHAIRMAN: Question 10 is also from Mr. Hu. May I ask Dr. Woo to reply to this.
DR. P. F. Woo, CHAIRMAN OF THE HEALTH EDUCATION SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows:
Noise can, of course, have a detrimental effect on health. However, as I said in reply to a similar question asked by Mr. Hu in March this year, noise is an inevitable symptom of a crowded city and Hong Kong is no exception. Possibly the most serious effect which city noises could have on health would be of a psychological, rather than physical, nature brought about by lack of sleep, irritability and fatigue. It can, however, be said that the majority of people living in large and crowded cities come to accept the usual background noises of a city.
In the reply I gave in March, I informed Members that the Health Education Select Committee has discussed the question of noise on several occasions. The only constructive action which can be taken to limit noise is to...
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