HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
ADDRESS BY CHAIRMAN
CHAIRMAN (in English):-Ladies and Gentlemen, the meeting is called to order.
MINUTES
The minutes of the meeting held on 16 and 23 December 1986, were confirmed.
PAPER
The following paper was laid on the table:—
(1) Report to the Urban Council by the Director of Urban Services and Secretary, Urban Council, for the month of December 1986.
QUESTIONS
1. MR. JOSEPH Y. S. CHAN asked the following question (in Cantonese):— During weekend and holidays, walls of commercial buildings and banks are stuck with different kinds of bills and posters. These kinds of advertisements will ruin the environment of Hong Kong. May I ask what efforts would Council do to prevent people from sticking bills and posters onto the walls?
DR. RONALD D. B. LEUNG, CHAIRMAN OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in English):-This question concerns Council's efforts in the control of bills and posters put up on the walls of commercial buildings and banks during week-ends and holidays.
Under section 104A(1)(a) of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance, Cap. 132, it is an offence to display or affix any bill or poster on any private land, which includes commercial buildings and banks, without the written permission of the owner or occupier. Before we can convict any offenders for breaches of this particular law, it is necessary to secure the agreement of the owner or occupier concerned to testify in court that he has not given permission for such bill-posting. Experience has shown that occupiers and owners are seldom willing to do so.
It has been the practice for the department to take out prosecutions against the unauthorized display of bills or posters on commercial buildings and banks only upon receipt of complaints.
Despite these difficulties, I can inform Members that 85 prosecutions were taken out against unauthorized bill-posting on walls of commercial buildings and banks in the last 6 months. On average, fines of some $250–300 have been awarded by the Courts.
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In early November 1986, under the directive of the Joint Urban Council/Regional Council Keep Hong Kong Clean Steering Committee, an appeal letter was sent to the Hong Kong Association of Banks soliciting the support of their members by agreeing to testify in Court against this anti-social act. Appeal letters were also sent to bank managers individually requesting their co-operation in giving testimony in the event that prosecution is contemplated against persons found displaying bills or posters without their permission.
Subsequently, the Department launched a prosecution blitz against the unauthorized display of bills or posters on bank walls on 29 and 30 November 1986. The blitz was preceded by warnings issued between 15 and 28 November 1986. As a result, 89 warnings were given and 48 persons were caught displaying bills or posters on bank walls without permission of the owners. The cases are now being processed for prosecution. Similar intensive campaigns will be repeated in future by the Department.
What I have just stated is the current official practice. However, I shall be investigating whether we can adopt a simpler procedure in future. It seems to me, as a layman in legal matters, that as the existing legislation stipulates that it is an offence to post bills on the walls of any private property without the prior written permission of the owners, the enforcement procedures may be facilitated by demanding such written permission from the person affixing posters to the walls. It may well be possible that this will be accepted as evidence of an offence under section 104A(1). If it is possible to adopt this simplified procedure, the need to call on bank managers as witnesses to any prosecution would be obviated and the conviction of offenders facilitated which should act as an effective deterrent. If the law does not allow this, perhaps we can see if the law can be changed to make the prosecution of offenders simpler.
MR. JOSEPH Y. S. CHAN (in Cantonese):--Mr. Chairman, apart from the fact that the posters look very unsightly, they also affect the cleanliness of our streets. Could we send staff during holidays to carry out spot checks and at the same time clean these walls of posters? Could we then ask the beneficiaries of such posters to pay for the cleaning taken by the staff of the department?
The second question:---When posters are put up, do we prosecute the one who put up the bills or the beneficiaries of such bills or whether we would prosecute both parties? I think we should not only prosecute the one who put up the bill because the advertisers are really the persons who benefit from such advertisements and they pay for people to put up these posters.
DR. RONALD D. B. LEUNG (in English):-Mr. Chairman, the first question concerns whether the Council should take active measure to clean up the place. Actually cleaning up is no problem because before Monday usually the banks concerned will clean up the place. If we were to do it by our Department, this would involve a great deal of manpower and resources. During the weekends staff usually take leaves. As regards sending the bills to the beneficiaries of the