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# HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
## ADDRESS BY CHAIRMAN
CHAIRMAN (in English):-Ladies and Gentlemen, may I call the meeting to order.
## MINUTES
The minutes of meetings held on 16 June 1994, were confirmed.
## PAPER
The following paper was laid on the table:
(1) Report to the Urban Council by the Secretary, Urban Council, for the month of June 1994.
## QUESTIONS
1. MS. ANNA TANG KING-YUNG asked the following question (in Cantonese): Sports grounds, playgrounds and sitting-out areas managed by the Council are found in all urban districts. Are the facilities in these venues regularly checked and maintained by the Department to ensure that they are safe to use? Since these venues are mostly open to use by all members of the public, how does the Department maintain their cleanliness?
MR. RONNIE WONG MAN-CHIU, CHAIRMAN OF THE RECREATION SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in Cantonese): This is a two-part question concerning the checking and maintenance of Council's sportsgrounds, playgrounds and sitting-out areas to ensure their safety and cleanliness.
The first part of the question concerns whether the sportsgrounds, playgrounds and sitting-out areas in all urban districts are regularly checked and maintained to ensure they are safe to use. The answers to this is in the affirmative. In order to ensure that these facilities are safe to use, venue staff of the Department carry out inspection of sportsgrounds, playgrounds on a daily basis. For those sitting-out areas not provided with static staff on site or those located in the more remote part of the city, inspection of these facilities may be less frequent but will not be less than once a week. As and when the inspecting staff discover any defect or there be any matter requiring attention, they will immediately notify the relevant works agent such as the Architectural Services Department or service contractor to carry out more detailed inspection and to effect the necessary repairs or replacements. The facilities in question will be cordoned off with signs and notices before completion of the repair or replacement works.
In addition, senior management of the district also conduct regular checks to ensure compliance with the required safety standard and to ascertain what other improvements are necessary.
The second part of the question concerns how the Department maintains the cleanliness of all the venues. For the sake of cost effectiveness, cleansing of most of such venues has been contracted out to private operators. The frequencies of cleaning the venues vary according to the locality and the popularity of the venue, ranging from three-times a day for the heavily patronised areas to once weekly for the less popular and remote open grounds/areas. Static staff are also deployed at many popular venues such as swimming pools and indoor games halls to ensure that cleanliness is kept to the highest level.
Even though the cleaning operators of these venues have their own supervising staff, the venue staff of the Department would also pay attention to the cleanliness of the venues during their inspection.
As for safety, the senior management of the district also checks the cleanliness of the venues during regular inspections to ensure the highest standard is maintained.
MS. ANNA TANG KING-YUNG (in Cantonese): Two follow-up questions please. First, Mr. WONG says that depending on the popularity of the venue, some may be cleaned only once a week. Also in some remote areas, it may appear that there are not too many people using them. The reason might be that the venue itself is very dirty with street sleepers and dogs around and as a result people do not like to use those venues. So it is probably because the place itself is dirty and as a result people do not use such venues. So I would like to ask whether the Department is paying attention to this point. Secondly, most of the cleaning work are privatised. The cleaning service is contracted out and the contractors are responsible for cleaning the areas. Our streets too are cleaned by private contractors. My question is: whether we should stipulate in the contract that those leisure places should be cleaned more frequently.
MR. RONNIE WONG MAN-CHIU (in Cantonese):--Madam TANG's question in fact is a question of whether there is the egg or chicken first. As I have told Members, the frequency may vary according to locality or popularity of the venue. If Miss TANG is aware of any venues that are actually so dirty that discourage people from using them, perhaps she can furnish the Department with such information and follow up action will definitely be taken. As to the second point of the question, i.e. contracting out of cleansing services to private operators, Miss TANG being a Member of the Recreation Select Committee may be aware that our contracts do stipulate very clearly that if the cleanliness standard of a place is not up to standard, follow up action will have to be taken. I feel that the situation is carefully monitored.
THE HON. LI WAH-MING (in Cantonese):—Recently in the New Territories, there was an accident in which a student was hurt by collapse of a basketball stand. I would like to ask whether similar facilities are provided in our venues and whether they are up to safety standard.
MR. RONNIE WONG MAN-CHIU (in Cantonese):—In our 122 venues, we have altogether 222 basketball stands. Of these only three are similar to the type that was involved in the accident in the New Territories. Action is in hand to replace them. Other types in fact are those with more than one pole, so they are more steady already.
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