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PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
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Mr. Eric Wong's amended motion put forth under Standing Order 21(12A) was put to the vote.
The amended motion was carried with 27 for and 6 abstentions.
(The record of voting on Mr. Eric Wong's amended motion is at Annex I.)
Chairman (in Cantonese):—The amended motion was carried with 27 for and 6 abstentions. We will proceed to the next motion. Would Mr. Wong Kwok-hing move the motion and speak?
(5) MR. WONG KWOK-HING moved:—
'All owners or tenants of the residential and commercial premises situated on private streets in the urban area are required to pay rates. At present, the Urban Services Department provides street cleansing services etc. (such as street sweeping, street washing, provision of litter bins and dog excreta collection bins etc.) for about 70% of private streets. For various reasons, the remaining private streets are not provided with such municipal services. Therefore, RESOLVED that the Council should conduct an overall review in order to provide cleansing services etc. for all private streets in the urban area as early as possible.'
He said (in Cantonese);—My motion is mainly targeted at the environmental hygiene of private streets. It is hoped that the Council will carry out a comprehensive review of the provision of cleansing services for private streets.
The environmental hygiene and cleanliness of private streets have been overlooked by the 'Healthy Living into the 21st Century' campaign being promoted by the Government and the Clean Hong Kong Campaign that has been carried out by the Council. I had contacted the Department before the meeting to find out the number of private streets in the urban area and was told that there were around 200, for about 70% of which limited cleansing services were provided by the Department. As to how and why this rate was determined, no one knows. Neither did the Department explain the reason why the remaining 30% were not provided with municipal cleansing services. I therefore consider that there is a need for a review to find out why the owners, shop-operators and tenants of these streets which are also private in nature, who have also paid the rates, are deprived of the right to enjoy the Department's municipal services as the other private or public streets.
I consider that if the Clean Hong Kong Campaign and the Healthy Living into the 21st Century' campaign actively promoted by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) overlooked the cleanliness and environmental hygiene of private streets, then the campaigns would not be adequate enough. As to the seriousness of the problem, I consider that it involves not just isolated cases and the impact is rather extensive. Take North Point East, my constituency, for instance. There are 35 streets, 26.5 of which
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