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MR. HU—I would ask Mr. BARTY a question. If he were a Ward Councillor sitting in Aberdeen on the evening of 20th February, 1967, and three persons came to this Councillor saying that their huts would be demolished the next morning and the notice was only posted at eleven o'clock to-day, and that it was already seven o'clock what would Mr. BARTY do? (Laughter).
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:—Am I authorized to answer a hypothetical question Mr. Chairman?
CHAIRMAN: ----On the understanding that this concludes the questioning on the subject. I feel that this subject has been quite sufficiently ventilated.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN: Sir, on a point of order, I have a factual supplementary to ask. Can Mr. BARTY tell this Council whether the final notice indicates the exact time that demolition would take place?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:—I think probably not. I think it says, and Mr. Hu has got it there with him now, that if it is not demolished before a certain date then it will be demolished by the Resettlement Department.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:—In that event, Mr. Chairman, could the Commissioner give consideration to amending the terms of the final notice along the lines whereby he would indicate the exact time on which demolition would take place, because there can be very many occasions, Mr. Chairman, when the parents may be out at work and leaving only children and the older folks behind and I think, not necessarily only to be fair to the public, but to build better relations between Government and the people, that this is a point which might be well worth considering by the Commissioner. May I have his assurance that he will give it very serious consideration?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: ---Certainly, Mr. Chairman.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:—Thank you.
DR. BELL:—Mr. Chairman, may I ask the Commissioner, through you if it is not a kind of unwritten law, or an unwritten understanding, that if an Urban Councillor does write in to the Resettlement Department concerning a particular case where demolition may be going to take place or clearance or what have you, that out of courtesy it is postponed until the Councillor can be given a reply, or until the position can be made clear?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:—That is certainly the practice, as I said in my reply to the original question, in the case of new illegal structures which may appear or extensions to existing structures in respect of which a notice of demolition has been posted which is not in connexion with a planned clearance for resettlement purposes, but just ordinary routine squatter control. But I do feel that it is not a practical solution with a planned clearance of which the people concerned have had weeks or even months of notice that D-Day, as we call it, should be brought to a halt because some individual at the very last moment rushes to somebody and asks for intervention. They have had many weeks of notice of what is coming and if they made an earlier opportunity to seek advice and assistance from the Councillor it would have been very easy to give the Councillor an explanation of what it was all about; but to do so at the very last minute when the planned clearance was at its last moment, I do not think is very practical.
DR. BELL: Mr. Chairman, I think the Commissioner has told us what he himself thinks. On the other hand, I think most of the Councillors here would think the opposite. If we are sitting working in a Ward I think that we would like to feel that we could have an answer from the Resettlement Department before a hut, whether it is in a planned clearance or in a squatter clearance area, or whatever it is, is demolished. It has rather defeated the object of the Ward system altogether if no attention is paid to the Councillor, and in the interest of better relations between the Urban Councillors and some of the Departments, I would ask particularly that some attention should be paid to this matter.
CHAIRMAN:—Dr. BELL, that was not a question, but I am sure Mr. BARTY will think it over.
MR. BERNACCHI:—Perhaps, Mr. Chairman, the real question is the question that Mr. BARTY cannot answer at the moment, what was in the original notice? If it was a definite date that clearance will take place on or after the something-of-something, then he has a point. The applicants in this case came to the Urban Councillor at the very last moment. If, on the other hand, the original notice was just a warning notice that clearance would take place in the near future, then of course the occupants did not have any opportunity to come to the Urban Councillor earlier.
MR. SALES: May I, on behalf of the Appointed Members, say how sorry we are that Mr. Henry Hu, whilst discharging his functions as a Ward Councillor, was deprived of his dinner without achieving an effective result, and that is this, that there should have been a stay of execution at least until our fellow Councillor could have had his dinner. (Laughter).
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