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recreational and other leisure-time activities for the people in their own neighbourhoods.
The Council
Much is achieved in a businesslike manner in virtually all select committees and sub-committees. Old services are re-examined, new policies debated and progressive decisions taken without vacillation. All activity is aimed at creating a better community life in a well-measured pace.
The Secretariat
It does well. No more is it just another section of a government department. It must now provide prompt support services of a new kind as the emergent Council attracts more outside interest and achieves greater prominence. An evolution is in train to meet the new challenge. There should not be the need for a public body to depend interminably on private resources to do its work properly.
The Department
It continues to expand selectively in numbers and services. It is taking on added work and responsibility with confidence as the Council forges a new public enterprise with vision and determination.
Yet, it serves two masters. The Government still draws unduly from its strength and experience in the urban areas to boost its own position in the New Territories. There should be a separate service altogether for the towns and the rural areas there so that the Council may shape a department under its own roof to suit the new working requirements, now all too clear after six years of operation. Though long in gestation, the signs are that the Government is about to give birth to twins; whether identical or not remains to be seen.
Development
At the start there was much to do in quick time to build a solid base for a new city administration. Good progress has been made meanwhile to strengthen the administration and expand the many municipal services. Sound planning and financial management have combined with an efficient operation to set the direction of progress. Training staff well ahead and building first-class assets for the future are a prudent exercise in the management of a sometimes complicated city. There must be boldness in planning and courage in applying the requisite resources if the momentum of progress is to be kept up and not to falter. Moving strongly forward now is creating the conditions for an even better performance in a short time to come.
Finance
The way the Council has handled its finances right from the beginning is the springboard for its impressive all-round development. It has given confidence to the committees to take on many new ventures of direct benefit to the community and to enter with farsighted determination into schemes of advantage to the public in the remaining years of the century.
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to the committees to take on many new ventures of direct benefit to the community and to enter with farsighted determination into schemes of advantage to the public in the remaining years of the century.
The Council's revenue base is very narrow so it is compelled to put its secondary sources of income on a realistic plane. Therefore, charges are adjusted to costs of service as much as possible in order to remove, where applicable, the unjustifiable element of a hidden subvention for private enterprise. There was much cross-subsidization before the Council became financially independent so a gradual corrective exercise had to be done in all fairness to the ratepayer.
Problem Areas
Problem areas must be expected because of overcrowded conditions, bad land use, past under-management, among many reasons not excluding, it must be admitted contritely, some inability in a few isolated cases here to come to terms pragmatically with the times. The Council recognizes the situation frankly and has no wish to play it down. Some problems can be corrected over a period of time. Others are more intractable. But none need cause undue concern if there is general understanding of the difficulties backed by the will to set right old anomalies and shed obsolete attitudes.
In the main, in the first category, there is still an appalling shortage of public land where most needed for a host of municipal uses. Even for the bare needs of a heavy concentration of people in a circumscribed area, there are some tracts in old districts without markets, off-street refuse collection centres, play areas and other basic civic facilities. Full use should be made of new land reclamations for all such and other public purposes. But, is this really done or is land sold off to the highest bidder with insufficient regard for community needs?
In the second category, there is the perennial and widespread street trading in the face of virtual full employment. However, as more composite markets are built, this problem with many dimensions is likely to be reduced in magnitude if at the same time there is effective control on the ground jointly with the police who cannot wash their hands of the responsibility. All the same, street trading will thrive as long as the people find it to their advantage to patronize this vast retail marketing of goods and services in public places. But, with commendable patience and genuine understanding of local customs and attitudes, the new committee leadership is resolutely putting the problem in perspective for the good of the community.
The Record
Not only is the result of the Council's work to be seen everywhere in cleaner surroundings, more green areas, numerous recreational facilities, modern markets, spreading libraries, new funeral service halls, extensive cultural presentations, and countless free leisure-time activities, but there is also a
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