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Recommendations of the Urban Council Working Party on Hawker and Related Policies. This was a monumental effort arrived at after nearly three years of detailed and painstaking discussions, visits and consultation exercises, a task for which our VCUC and the Working Party are to be complemented and now the time for action has arrived. The first attempt to implement this pragmatic and realistic policy will shortly arise in the Mong Kok district and, in particular, to re-order wet goods hawkers e.g. vegetables etc. and remove them from the streets in the Tai Kok Tsui area into a purpose-designed single storeyed market. Hawkers will be totally removed from two of the five congested streets and four or five rows of hawkers in the other streets to one row, allowing for improved access and environmental conditions in the whole area.
The DB has recommended against this, advising us that we should simply drive several hundred long standing hawkers from the area. The consequences of attempting such an action are easy to envisage; however, the proposal no doubt was considered in the context of DB electioneering, but if the Urban Council is to maintain its credibility, it must stand by its policies.
Mr. CHEONG-LEEN mentioned specific markets in the Wan Chai district and urged the re-development of the Wong Nei Chong Market. However, the fine new market in Lockhart Road is currently not well patronized by the residents of Wan Chai and perhaps his proposal should be considered in this light.
Several Councillors mentioned the privatization of abattoirs. This is held up, I understand, by delay on the part of various Government departments. We are spending significant sums of money running abattoirs at a loss to the public purse. There appears to be a great reluctance in the Government to pay the price to compensate staff for loss of employment and thus make substantial savings in the future. The staff are Government servants and Government must make the running. Meanwhile, the rate-payers are bearing the losses incurred in this operation. I know the Urban Services Department is pressing for a rapid conclusion and so is this Council.
Cultural impresarios and their representations concerning hire charges of Council's venues was mentioned but the question which has been addressed in this Council is exactly how to retain a balance between our aims and objectives in the field of culture, and their need to make a living. We do not have a monopoly of venues in Hong Kong. There are many splendid ones in the Regional Areas. The Academic Community Hall for instance is very much under-utilized, and impresarios with presentations could cast around for other venues. There is room for us both to co-operate with each other and we are not averse to objective criticisms and ideas.
Miss Cecilia YEUNG claimed that this was the 17th time that she had attended the Annual Conventional Debate. Looking at her, I am quite sure that if that is the case, she must have been a very young girl when she attended the first meeting, as years do not seem to have changed her.
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Miss YEUNG in her comments on the work of the Liquor Licensing Board mentioned discos. Last year, I had the opportunity to see Miss YEUNG perform in discos in both Beijing and Shanghai and certainly she seems to be able to talk from a fair amount of experience.
She also mentioned the honourable history of the Urban Council and I agree with her that our hundred years of activity is a good foundation to build on.
Mr. Stephen LAU covered a wide variety of subjects. However, his comments on the Urban Services Department's Value for Money Studies deserve particular mention, as certainly we must commend the Department and the Steering Group on the progress that it has made in various Value for Money Studies. Over the past three or four years, despite taking over a large number of new projects, new buildings, additional mileage of roads etc., the establishment has increased only marginally and I think that both the Department and the Council must accept credit for this.
Dr. Philip Kwok dealt with the work of the Museums Select Committee. The work of this Committee is really coming to the boil with construction starting on the Museum of Art, Museum of Science and Technology and work is underway on the extension to the Museum of History. Of course our museum programmes in the Space Museum, the old Museum of Art and the Museum of History together with the Museum of Tea Ware go on unabated. This is a very exciting time for all of us who are involved with the museum programmes, both current and future.
I am most grateful for Mr. SULKE raising the subject of having a Mayor of Hong Kong; I think, perhaps, he meant Lord Mayor. However, being a Scotsman, perhaps the title should really be 'Lord Provost', but then every District Board would crave a similar change of name, so where would we end up.
Mr. SULKE also mentioned the question of twinning with other cities. This is a good idea. However, we have been approached by many other cities and it would be difficult to choose which one to accept, should the Government relax its objection to this proposal.
He also dealt with a large range of other subjects. He has already sent extracts of his speech to a large number of people, so it would be redundant for me to deal with the rest of his speech in any great detail.
Mr. Joseph CHAN dealt with the library development programme. The public libraries are some of the most utilized facilities that we provide in the urban areas. This is largely a low-key operation and the only time there is publicity is normally when there are one or two mild criticisms during the year. The vast amount of work done by the library staff and Select Committee affects tens of thousands of people every day and they are to be congratulated on the high quality of their work.
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