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# HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
accelerated, and that there should be a crash-programme of market and hawker bazaar development, I proposed specifically:-
(i) that the Council should assume effective control of its works priorities, if necessary through the creation of a Council Works Section and the use of private architects.
(ii) that we should commission local Management Consultants to make an organizational survey of the Council, in order to improve efficiency and ensure the necessary services and back-up for the implementation of new Council policies and programmes.
(iii) that, as a corollary of this, systems of communication with Central Government be improved to provide proper liaison and accountable representation for the Council on the Town Planning Board and bodies responsible in over-lapping areas of Pollution, Conservancy, Recreation and Sports activities.
None of this, in fact, has been adequately done—and the Council has suffered by it:
The pre-autonomy organization of our Secretariat is no longer adequate to current needs or future aspirations.
Our Capital Works programme ($30 million in these first 31 years) is not impressive in relation to the hundreds of projects, large and small, which still languish in the Public Works Programme. Contrary to the spirit and the letter of the Memorandum of Administrative Arrangements, Council priorities have been ignored; and delays have been imposed by Government for financial reasons and because of limitations in PWD capacity. The CUC has commented on this state of affairs last month. This has also led directly to misleading and artificial surpluses in Budget account.
Communication with Government remains tenuous and sorrily deficient.
I suggest that, before the new Council administration takes office next year, we should initiate an examination of our overall systems of management, including liaison with Government in such vital areas as the Secretariat, Public Works Department, etc. There are also important questions to be considered regarding future Public Relations organization, the appointment of our own senior staff and the functional efficiency of our executive arm, the Urban Services Department. I believe that our minimum needs are:
# HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
strengthening of the Council Secretariat, with up-graded responsibilities for the Council Chief Executive and the creation of new posts.
the professional staffing of our Works Planning Section by Council appointees, having effective liaison with P.W.D. and using private architects and consultants to accelerate the Council Works' Programme, and
a new and distinct approach to our own Public Relations Section which will bring this within the direct charge of the Council and open up new channels of communication to the public.
I believe that the CUC and Members appreciate the need for such an overall management review, and I hope that proposals in this respect can be presented shortly for the consideration of Council.
## COUNCIL EXPANSION
I would like to consider expansion of the Council and extension of its responsibilities to the new towns of the New Territories.
In the last Debate I said that, "The Council (should) give thought and direction to its further development as a municipal or city Council, and consider the creation of a District Council organization on the model, perhaps, of the Greater London Council". These remarks were presaged by proposals contained in the 1966 "Report of the Working Party on Local Administration" and the Urban Council's 1969 "Report on the Reform of Local Government". The major recommendations of these two documents were quietly ignored in the "White Paper on the Urban Council" published in 1971.
The present system of administration in the New Territories was instituted in 1898 and is based on the concept of a District Commissioner and District Officers, an apparatus more appropriate to the African bush than to an integrated modern society. It is supplemented by a kind of "Town Major" system, reminiscent of the administration of occupied territories in the Second World War!
It is evident that change must come, and come quickly, in a situation where 40-50% of the total Hong Kong population will soon be settled in the Urban areas of our New Towns. The Urban Services Department is the subordinate and executive arm of the Urban Council, yet conducts its cleansing and other duties in the New Territories as a Government Department, i.e. the Urban Council has no jurisdiction in the New Territories' conurbations and, despite its ability and current affluence, cannot provide expanding urban popula-
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