292
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
whether the Urban Councillor can stand for pressure and whether he can spend more time to do so. As regards UC's policy, I would like to make some suggestions. First of all, it relates to delays in capital works projects. Because of the delays, members of the public have to enjoy these facilities at a later date. Furthermore, the delay in completing the projects results in escalating building costs. I suggest in the coming year, we actively review with a view to improving the conditions of our contracts so that if there were delays, greater penalty would be imposed so as to avoid having an increase in our building costs.
With regard to culture and entertainment matters, the local people, including myself, would hope that the Urban Council could provide more programmes at the district level. In the past, I mentioned on several occasions that the Department gave me a lot of reasons for refusal to provide more programmes at the district level. I think that for a large district geographically, such as Central and Western District, in certain months there might only be one to two district performances taking place in this District. Sometimes, since other major programmes are organized in other districts, it seems to me that even for a period of two to three months, there would not be any cultural or entertainment programme held in the Central and Western District. I think that if we want to improve the cultural and entertainment standards of these events, more such programmes should be organized at the district level so as to arouse their interests to buy tickets to see and enjoy the major cultural and entertainment programmes organized by the Council. I am therefore in favour of more funds being allocated to district programmes or even the Council should consider having special funds set aside for district-based bodies to apply to organize more cultural and entertainment programmes of their own.
Thirdly, I support the proposal recommended by the Libraries Select Committee to make the City Hall Library be upgraded into a Central Library. In Kowloon, the Central Library had been completed for some time, and it is really now time to implement the Hong Kong Central Library in our capital work programme this year.
Fourthly, a few days ago, the Police District Commander (Yau Ma Tei) mentioned vice establishments in his District. I think that our Liquor Licensing Board in dealing with the issue and renewal of licences should pay due attention to vice establishments. As these establishments are issued with liquor licences, they can enjoy better patronage. We should not merely look at whether they are high-class or low-class establishments; we should strictly enforce our licensing conditions. If it is found that vice activities are being conducted in these premises, the liquor licence should immediately be cancelled. We should not be lenient to these establishments.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Page 151 of 182
293
In the past year, I was under pressure from two areas. The first is from hawkers. Many colleagues have mentioned that we spent a lot of time and efforts on the hawkers problem, but this difficult problem remains unresolved. I hope that in the coming year, we could have a breakthrough, which has to rely on the Chief Secretary. I hope Government Departments, including the Royal Hong Kong Police Force, would actively look at the problem and work together with USD to solve this long-standing problem of hawkers.
My second pressure came from the abattoirs. Against the background of environmental protection, I think the Urban Council should really do more work and actively consider a more progressive strategy. First of all, on the matter of Kennedy Town Abattoir, we all realise that the abattoir would remain unchanged for the next ten years. It would not be moved to another site in the next ten years. The Urban Council abattoirs would probably be privatized in the future, but we still have to manage the by-product plant and the animal incinerator, which two years ago, the Environmental Protection Department has already declared these as two pollution black spots. Although we are forced to manage these two polluting black spots, we have not put a lot of resources into improving the situation. This certainly would impair the image of the Urban Council. I think that we should concentrate our efforts on moving the animal incinerator and by-product plant from the urban area. If these could not be done in the short term, we should really spend more money to improve the situation there.
My second problem regarding environmental protection is the disposal of refuse. In the past two years, the Urban Council has spent a lot of money on publicizing 'Keep Hong Kong Clean'. We still do not have a firm stand on the use of plastic bags. I think in the coming year, the Urban Council should decide not to promote the use of plastic bags. As far as environmental protection is concerned, plastic bags cause great pollution to our environment. We should take the lead in publicizing the message of being careful with the use of plastic bags. As regards 'Keep Hong Kong Clean', I think the Department has done enough publicity and education, and we should listen to the views of the general public and punish severely the litter-bugs. Fines should be increased substantially to deter them from littering again. Only by so doing, we will be able to really help keep Hong Kong clean.
My third point relating to environmental protection work is that the Urban Council can work more closely with other Government Departments. In the past, in our ward offices, we received a lot of complaints about dripping air-conditioners and noise nuisance from the air-conditioners of food establishments, etc. Could we not discuss with relevant Government Departments and suggest to these departments that in all new buildings, there should be legislation on air-conditioners being installed in domestic premises to avoid dripping? In all commercial or industrial buildings, there should be approved air-conditioners which are in compliance with standards issued by the EPD, so as to avoid future nuisance created to the general public. Actually, there are two matters relating to commercial and residential buildings. First of all is the refuse chamber. Many people have asked us how many more RCPs do we need to construct to meet the requirement. Last year, I mentioned the point about refuse; I think this year we should actively look at ways and means of influencing the Government under the Building Ordinance, so that new buildings would