Page 142 of 201
242
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Relevant legislation may have to be introduced to enable the Owners Corporation to collect management fees from the units, to coordinate removal of bulky junks, and to effect cleansing of some inaccessible common areas. The Owners Corporation should also receive assistance from the District Office, the Area Committee, and the District Board. The Building Management Coordination team was formed with this objective in mind. This scheme is being tried out with success in some areas.
The Urban Council and the Urban Services Department should play a more active role in assisting the Owners Corporation in the collection of bulky junks. Such block-to-block collection is being done at our Year-end Clean Up Campaign in certain selective areas. This should be done at more frequent and regular intervals. It should also be expanded into other areas. With the coordination of District Office and the District Board, a schedule for collection may be worked out at some convenient spots strategically located.
The suggestion of having the junks collected at the doorways by the Urban Services Department has been raised. Although this practice is quite successful in some less densely populated overseas countries, in the context of Hong Kong with its complex nature of Multistorey structures, the issue has to be taken up very carefully, as it may have to take a great deal of cooperation and coordination with the Owners Corporation in order to be successful. It may also have to involve a great deal more human and financial resources.
Now, Mr. Chairman, I go on to my second topic:—
Reviewing the Maintenance System of Our Facilities
Existing arrangement for maintenance of our facilities were made according to the stipulation in the Memorandum Administrative Arrangements that any defects noted and any repairs required will have to be reported by our departmental staff to the Architectural Services Department for actions. Architectural Services Department, being specialized in the work, and having a maintenance section to look after all government properties, will be the right department to look after the facilities which the Architectural Services Department has built for us on our behalf. The Council's role is to foot the bill plus 16 per cent on cost to the ASD for their services. The ASD will prepare the specification for tender, to award the tender to contractor, to supervise the progress of the work, and to check on the quality of the finished work before making payments. Such arrangements may be fair because some of our facilities are highly technical and professional and since ASD is responsible for constructing them, it will be reasonable for ASD to provide the after-sale service. These could have been the rationale when the decision was initially made.
It has gradually evolved into a tradition that all maintenance works, minor or major, simple or technical, have all been channelled to ASD for repair. This has resulted in bottlenecks and delay is unavoidable. The ASD Maintenance Section is heavily burdened with numerous other major jobs that priority has to be allocated, their supervisory staff may not be adequate. The long chain of command between the Urban Services Department-Architectural Services Department-Contractor is susceptible to delay or even break of contact. With the increasing number of our Council facilities, the call for more vigilant control over this aspect of work has become urgently and genuinely necessary.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Page 142 of 201
243
be allocated, their supervisory staff may not be adequate. The long chain of command between the Urban Services Department-Architectural Services Department-Contractor is susceptible to delay or even break of contact. With the increasing number of our Council facilities, the call for more vigilant control over this aspect of work has become urgently and genuinely necessary.
Recent incidences have clearly demonstrated this deficiency that we may not be getting our money's worth for our annual maintenance bill. The Wing Hing Street Refuse Collection Point incident showed that there was a communication gap in the interdepartmental stage of reporting the defect and of liaising for repair. A delay of two months was taken before the Architectural Services Department could finally correct the defect. The Murray Road car park public toilet offered another blatant example of inefficiency of the present system when it took more than 4 months for the ASD to act on our reporting of a defect which took only 4 days to repair. Some of our venues were not regularly inspected for maintenance over more than four years. A recent event has revealed that the state of disrepair of our Cape Collinson Crematorium was deplorable; we were only to learn of the fact that the place has not been properly looked into by regular maintenance staff, not to speak of carrying out any maintenance work at all.
Bearing these problems in mind, I would like, therefore, to propose to solve these problems in three different areas. Firstly, we need to have to inspect our venues at frequent and regular intervals by professionals to locate any need for repair or maintenance and to discuss through proper departmental meeting and interdepartmental liaison in order to effect repair, either by ourselves or by Architectural Services Department. Secondly, major and specialized and some highly technical works that may have to be done by referral to the ASD and to be tendered out to contractors will have to be supervised by staff from Urban Services Department closely for progress and quality to see that the facilities will be put back into public use as soon as possible. Finally, most defects are of minor in nature and can be effectively done by an in-house team of technicians under our direct control and supervision. Such elementary tasks and front-line jobs can be done with much shorter response time and the services and facilities can be put back into useful service much quicker.
I believe the above three objectives can be achieved by forming a nucleus group within our Urban Services Department. The group may be headed by a government maintenance surveyor seconded from the Architectural Services Department. With his contact with the ASD, he will be able to liaise and communicate with his parent department at the same wavelength with regard to supervision of the contractors, the progress of the work, and to deal with any problems encountered which heretofore have not been anticipated. He will be able to coordinate the maintenance works within our department. He will also be directly responsible for regular inspections of all our venues either personally or through his group of staff recruited from the USD. A few technicians may have to be recruited for minor repair work. With this rudimentary set-up, all minor