Page 138 of 166.
262
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
programmes, it is also hoped the Council will make concessionary arrangements in the light of actual conditions. I think that certain policies be amended flexibly according to certain situations.
Festival activities can
Eastern District: Civic Centres
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
263
Each year the Urban Council subsidizes district activities for celebrating festivals such as the Mid-Autumn Festival. At present, a sum of $20,000 is allocated to each district and it will be raised to $30,000 next year irrespective of its population. This allocation method makes it difficult for those districts with a larger population to organize festival activities, and the fund becomes something far from enough and yet a waste to discard. Therefore, I hope the Council will allocate funds according to the density of population of each district.
Hawkers
The hawker problem seems to be the issue which is most often raised in the enquiries of the Urban Councillors in the monthly UC meetings. In fact, it is a long-standing problem which we cannot expect to solve overnight. Unless one
Although the Sai Wan Ho Civic Centre will be opened later this year, with a capacity of only 500 seats, it cannot meet the needs of more than 500,000 residents of the Eastern District. The survey revealed that 84.5% of the respondents felt that the most inadequate facilities were venues for cultural activities. Therefore, I hope the Urban Council will allocate funds for building a full-scale civic centre in the district. In fact, the Government has already reserved land in Chai Wan for this purpose.
Sports Ground
day the public find that the unlicensed hawkers are so repulsive that they post secondary college in this district, so a sports ground is urgently needed.
co-operate with the Urban Council by not patronizing them, their mixed feelings of 'love and hatred' towards these hawkers will continue to exist. A lot of citizens criticize that the Council's management of unlicensed hawkers is a failure. However, considering the existing resources, the Council has already made great efforts in this respect. For example, the Council spent more than $182 million in the management of unlicensed hawkers this year. The Urban Services Department has also been making active preparations for restructuring the General Duties Team. As a move to improve the efficiency of hawker management, starting from the beginning of this month, all itinerant and fixed pitch hawkers are required to wear badges while operating business. I hope these efforts and measures can alleviate the problem of unlicensed hawkers. In the long run, I suggest more markets should be built by the Council in convenient sites so that people can buy the daily necessities easily, thus reducing the chances of patronizing unlicensed hawkers on streets. To achieve this, we need the co-operation of the Government in granting land at more desirable locations to the Council for construction of markets.
Refuse collection
With the rising living standard of citizens, the quantity of refuse generated has increased. Sometimes there are complaints about delays in the removal of refuse or waste lying on the streets. To improve this area of service, the Council will use more than $40 million to purchase 50 refuse collection vehicles in the next two years. I applaud this decision. However, I hope the Council will consult the Housing Department on the provision of concealed refuse collection chambers at more suitable locations in all the housing estates in those districts like the Eastern District where housing estates stand in great numbers. At the same time, the Keep Hong Kong Clean Campaign should educate the public not to dispose their waste at random.
There are now 4 sports grounds in the Hong Kong Region. Three in Wan Chai and one in the Southern District. However, there are no such facilities in the densely-populated Eastern District. There are over 140 schools including one Chinese University of Hong Kong jointly conducted a survey on the leisure activities of the young people in the Eastern District. According to the town planning standard, there should be one sports ground for every 200,000 to 250,000 people. I hope the Urban Council will fight for the grant of land in the Eastern District for such a sports ground so that we do not have to go to another district for holding school sports activities.
Markets
The Java Road Complex and the Electric Road Complex will provide more shopping facilities for the local residents when completed in late 1991. In addition, the Urban Council reincludes the redevelopment of the Causeway Bay Market in its 5-year Capital Works Programme in response to the views of the Eastern District Board. On behalf of the DB members, I hereby express my thanks to the Council for its readiness to accept our ideas. The Chai Wan Temporary Market is another hot topic for discussion in the meetings of Eastern DB. I hope the Council will identify a suitable location near the temporary market for building a permanent one as soon as possible to accommodate the stalls in the temporary market, to solve the problem of illegal hawking and to improve the environmental hygiene in the district.
Parks
I hope the construction work of the Quarry Bay Park and the Chai Wan Park will start on schedule to add two more green areas to the densely-populated Eastern District.
Into the 90's
The above are my views on the work of the Urban Council and the expectations of the Eastern DB. I hope the Council will work more closely with the DBs and
Page 139 of 166.