HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: -Mr. Chairman, that is not paragraph 4B in my copy.
MR. BERNACCHI:-I'm sorry, I see, I was dealing with paragraph 8B by mistake. Paragraph 4B-"The Committee also made interim recommendations to the effect that the Hon. Director of Public Works' alternative layout of fire sites, including 6 storey blocks, should be accepted" and then paragraph 9 reads "Having been driven to the conclusion, the Committee examined in detail plans produced by the Director of Public Works for a 6 storey convertible structure". My question after all that is, did not the Director of Public Works produce these plans to the sub-committee for their considerations?
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: -May I answer that one too? I think, Sir, that quite clearly the Director of Public Works produced these plans at the beginning of January for the consideration of the Colonial Secretary and the Council, and they were then passed to the sub-committee.
MR. BERNACCHI:-I think I am right in saying that the Director of Public Works had a representative on the sub-committee, namely, the Deputy Director of Public Works?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-That is so.
MR. BERNACCHI:-He was a co-opted member. I am not wishing to decry the part played by the Public Works Department, but I am suggesting that the idea of Government built resettlement originated even before this sub-committee, when the Urban Council, who was responsible for cottage resettlement, discovered that it just was not working, that cottage resettlement was provided for purchase at $1,600 or more and the persons who were purchasing it had not the money and they sold illegally their white cards to other persons who were not entitled to resettlement. In the end there was a suspicion that the whole thing was utterly corrupt, and therefore even before the Shek Kip Mei fire, the Urban Council had urged Government to itself take on the responsibility of building houses and letting them to the squatters.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-I am afraid I am not familiar with the history of that in such detail, Mr. Chairman.
DR. BELL: Mr. Chairman, may I ask a supplementary? Could the Commissioner for Resettlement not just apologize for not mentioning the Urban Council and leave it at that?
CHAIRMAN:-That is really the point, Dr. BELL, and I think he has apologized to quote "I am glad to assure members that there was no deliberate intention of excluding any reference to any aspect of this Council's part in the resettlement programme."
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MR. BERNACCHI:-Lastly, and I say lastly, also because I am referring to the passage headed "Lastly". Is the Commissioner for Resettlement aware that a representative from the Information Services attended a meeting of the Local Administration Select Committee when it was laid down in the name of the Council that this Urban Council's name should be mentioned in all pamphlets dealing with the Urban Council's work?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:
I was not aware of that.
May I ask, in this connexion, when that Committee made this decision?
MR. BERNACCHI:-August of this year.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-Mr. Chairman, this does not apply to this pamphlet (the Commissioner referred to the pamphlet on the millionth settler) which was completed before then.
MR. BERNACCHI : I must ask another question then. If the pamphlet was completed before August of this year, why was there not time for it to be submitted to either the Policy Select Committee or the Management Select Committee of Resettlement?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-I do not think, Mr. Chairman, it is altogether a question of time. When I say the pamphlet was completed, I say the text was completed. I do not know whether in fact it had come off the press.
CHAIRMAN:-Mr. BERNACCHI, I have as Director of Urban Services issued comprehensive instructions to my staff regarding publicity for the Urban Council. With your permission I will send a copy of it to my colleague in the Resettlement Department.
(2) MR. B. A. BERNACCHI asked the following question:-
Can noise have a detrimental effect on health? If so, is it possible to take action against a noisy factory situated in Kai Yuen Street, North Point, which operates for 24 hours a day. This factory disturbs residents in the area from whom I have received representations.
THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES replied as follows:
The abatement of noise does not fall within the jurisdiction of the Urban Council. Under Section 13 of the Summary Offences Ordinance action can be taken against any person who makes a noise between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.
If, Sir, you would let me have the name and
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