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believe it should. This Council has done a great deal to try to speed up the issue of licences but of course there are many factors involved. The delays may often be due to the applicant not fulfilling requirements and conditions or due to other departments delaying replies. There has been much more co-operation from the Fire Services Department and Building and Water Authorities in recent times, but there is room for more improvement. This Council can also improve its methods; for instance, I would suggest that when an application is received, a letter should be sent in reply in English with Chinese translation attached informing the applicant that an inspector will call on such and such a date and at such and such a time (if not convenient, the applicant can telephone and arrange another time). This will eliminate many wasted visits by our inspectors to premises which are locked up and applicants not contactable. Secondly, I would suggest that no application should be valid for more than 1 year. There is no reason why an applicant should not have been able to fulfill requirements within that time. If he has not been able to be issued with a licence in that time, then the application should be cancelled, subject of course to appeal under mitigating circumstances. This will eliminate those many applications which have dragged on for 2, 3, or more years either through prevarication or procrastination on the part of the applicant, or on the part of the other departments involved or the Urban Services Department. It would also, I think, eliminate quite a number of cases of businesses being carried on without a licence while an application is pending.
I am particularly concerned that all letters of Requirement and Conditions which are sent out should be sent out with a full Chinese translation attached. I was recently astonished to discover that letters of Requirements to Restaurants have been going out from this Council in English only, with an attached note in Chinese that a Chinese translation could be obtained on application. The members of this Council have stressed over and over again the importance of every letter or document sent to members of the public being sent with a full Chinese translation. Most of the applicants for our licences are Chinese, and it is quite ridiculous to expect them to understand wads of regulations written in English, and why should they have to apply further for a Chinese translation. I must urge that steps are taken to immediately rectify this.
Parks, Recreation & Amenities:
Under the experienced and efficient leadership of Mr. SALES, our parks, recreation facilities, and amenities are expanding and advancing all the time, but there are a few points I would like to emphasize. Particularly, the great need for more diversification of sport and recreation. In our anxiety to provide sport for the greatest numbers to participate and spectate, at the same time, we tend to overlook other sports and recreations which large numbers of people could with benefit learn to enjoy; of course, an indoor stadium would provide many of these, and with our increasing juvenile delinquency and drug problems, it is obvious that Government and the Finance Committee must be persuaded to loosen the purse strings considerably more for the provision of more varied recreation facilities, even a municipal golf course, and particularly indoor stadia. I would very much like to see some well-set-out picnic areas, provided with benches, barbecue or picnic cooking facilities, even perhaps a dry latrine, and of course litter bins, in easily accessible parts. For instance, Kowloon Peak, Lion Rock, and the Kowloon Reservoir area abound with such spots - all are easily accessible from the urban area. In gazetting new beaches in future, we must make sure that no problems are going to arise for the people getting to and from these beaches by small boats, such as have arisen recently at the Trio Beach near Hebe Haven, where the Marine Department has suddenly clamped down on the use of petrol engines in the small craft which have for years been thus transporting people quite uneventfully and safely back and forth. Swimming is such a popular, cheap, and important healthy recreation here that it is imperative to open up new facilities for the public, and we must seek the co-operation of all Government departments and facilities for transporting the public to these new recreation areas.
Resettlement estates tend to lack greenery, and I would suggest that trees and flowering shrubs should be planted in as many places as possible within the estates, especially the older estates. Many of the estate dwellers have grown attractive plants and flowers on the verandas in an endeavour to fill the need, and I would like to see much more amenity planting in the estates.
Resettlement:
In spite of the achievements in Resettlement over the years and the great improvements in the design of the new resettlement blocks, this is still very basic housing, and although I, for one, resent criticism from rank outsiders like that of a certain Architects Association members who were recently reported to have said that they were unimpressed by Hong Kong housing and that the Resettlement estates were worse than the worst slums they had ever seen, we have to admit there is a grain of truth, and one aim, which might have been included in our Statement, with regard to Resettlement, is that we should endeavour all the time to improve the standard of accommodation, and of course, less overcrowding and density of occupancy is one of the most important ways of doing this. The Sales Formula is an important step to help to prevent future overcrowding, and I hope that when the Executive Council considers this Council's recommendation that the Sales Formula be implemented immediately, they will bear in mind the recently published criticism which I have mentioned.
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