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32.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
ADDRESS BY CHAIRMAN
CHAIRMAN (in English):-Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen. It is 4 o'clock and we will proceed with the business of today's meeting.
MINUTES
The minutes of the meeting held on 10th May, 1977 were confirmed.
STATEMENT BY CHAIRMAN
CHAIRMAN (in English):-The Council should now seek the views of local community organizations to find out what neighbourhood needs are in their estimation. It did so on a comprehensive scale many years ago. It was a systematic exercise carried out in earnest. On a practical plane, it was done by the Urban Services Department in conjunction with the City District Offices. It proved most useful. Not only did it serve the purpose of cross-checking the development plans the Council had drawn up in consultation with the Department but it also brought home to all concerned that the Council was anxious to work closely with district civic leaders for community betterment and would be responsive to their considered views.
Of course, as it must, such a dialogue goes on regularly but it is generally limited to a separate issue each time. Then, it was about community recreation needs. Now, it should be a total assessment in all matters within its powers.
The many suggestions then heard were examined carefully. Where warranted they were adopted. In consequence, many new schemes were started and put through to completion. Examples now abound in all districts. Of course, there are many projects still left to find their way through Government's mills which grind ever so slowly while costs to the ratepayer rise inevitably. All the same, it is gratifying that the community co-operation then started has partly brought about the tangible benefit which the people now enjoy.
Lest the Council falter in its ambitions, or is frustrated in its plans, it is perhaps time to carry out an intensive appraisal of what the community still needs in each urban district. It should evidently be preceded by a down-to-earth survey of opinion. If followed through, the findings would enable fresh plans to be laid down with full confidence of community backing. This joint research by the Department together with neighbourhood organizations and with the active support of the City District Offices will create goodwill as much as it will benefit the people in real terms.
It will focus attention on the needs of each locality. At the same time, it will enable the Council to determine how its resources should be applied to create specific civic amenities in a practical and intelligent manner. Certainly, it would be a pragmatic approach to use limited money and manpower to solve problems identified by the people themselves. In the process, the Council would have reviewed what it had achieved meanwhile. Also, it would have analysed the effectiveness of its policies, assessed the usefulness of its building projects, and measured the impact of its programmes after a lapse of four years, while relating again all existing plans to the objectives set out in its annual Statement of Aims. When over, the Council would be better placed to decide what direction its work should take in each area of its responsibility to the community.
While the Urban Services Department goes into action on this extensive research in combination with the many neighbourhood organizations concerned, the Council itself should not stand idly by. In fact, there used to be the practice for Members to indicate in their own respective files whatever suggestions they might wish to make for the improvement of any urban area, be it where they worked or resided, had their ward offices or just happened to know. Some blight was removed on their initiative and the environment made more amenable at their instigation. This businesslike procedure could be revived with advantage. And, another opportunity would thus be created for Members to be seen to work constructively in the general interest.
Whatever may be done eventually by such a grand exercise, the concerted effort to determine what the people conceive their own needs to be can only be a valuable aid to the Council's development plans. It will clearly define the position for many years to come and will give substance to new aims and objectives. In any case, the Council must be genuinely responsive to public needs at all times. Even more, it should anticipate them in a rapidly evolving society. Anyway, progress will be purposeful. By design and not by fluke. The select committees will sail to a course carefully charted well in advance and so will not risk drifting aimlessly, waiting only to react hastily to changing pressures. So, let the Council search out what community needs are in reality. Ask, in essence, what the people need. And, respond accordingly.