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PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
MR. CHRISTOPHER CHUNG SHU-KUN (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I second Mr. Wong Kwok-hing's motion.
MR. CHAN Kwok-leung (in Cantonese):—Owing to the lack of good town planning in earlier days, loopholes in structural designs, and the deliberate intention of some developers to retain access to some private properties, there are numerous private streets in the urban area. The ownership of these private streets, especially those belonging to old-typed buildings, is rather scattered. Some of them are tenements while others have no owners' corporation or management agent. Consequently, no cleaners are employed to clean the common areas within these privately owned places and the responsibility of cleaning has fallen onto the USD.
According to the Department's statistics compiled in the 80s, that is, the statistics given by Mr. Wong Kwok-hing just now, there are 204 private streets, 144 of which are provided with sweeping services by the Department while no such services are provided for the remaining 60-odd streets for various reasons. Nevertheless, even for the 144 private streets which could be said to be provided with the Department's services, only basic cleansing services are provided, such as sweeping and cleaning, and street-washing if possible, but facilities such as litter bins and dog excreta collection bins are not installed on these private streets.
As for the reason why these remaining 60-odd private streets are not provided with cleaning and sweeping services, the Department has explained that some of the accesses are constructed around certain buildings, such as accesses leading to certain buildings in The Peak, while others are surrounded with fences, railings or iron posts, obviously barring unauthorized entry. The staff of the Department do not go into these accesses to carry out cleansing work. Accordingly, no sweeping and cleaning services are provided to the remaining 60-odd private streets.
In this connection, the Department should conduct a comprehensive review and provide the information collected to the Council to compile the most updated statistics on the streets in Hong Kong. The information now available is statistics compiled in the 80s, but the fact is that in the Central and Western districts alone, the delineation between private streets and back alleys is not clear and there are already 162 private streets, back alleys and public alleys. There is therefore a need for the statistics compiled in the 80s, which indicate that there are only 204 private streets in the area managed by the Council throughout Hong Kong, to be updated and re-compiled.
It is also hoped that if resources permit, cleansing services for those private streets which are widely used by members of the public will be stepped up, so that the services would be more comprehensive and would cover more streets. Apart from the Department's provision of cleansing services, it is hoped that the Lands Department will expedite its programme of resumption of private
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