TNAG-0201-FCO40-237-Local-government-reforms-1969 — Page 59

0003230

G.F. 323

CONFIDENTIAL

11

e)

Trade & Industry Advisory Board

f)

Transport Advisory Committee

and possibly some body in the field of housing and town planning. So far as the Urban Council itself is concerned good arguments could be developed in theory for reducing its sphere of activities to orthodox urban services and having a separate body to deal with all state housing including resettlement.

Even in practice this might not be

as difficult to do as it sounds since all members of the Urban Council

are already members of the Housing Authority. Clearly for each functional council or board it would be necessary to consider whether all the subjects handled by the existing bodies should be dealt with in this way or only some. In several fields it would for instance be

quite possible to segregate management from development as has already been done in the case of Resettlement and Low Cost Housing and Car Parks.

24. Obviously much thought would have to be given to the selection

of those fields of administration where fuller participation by the public was desirable and feasible. The approach I advocate does not avoid this problem though it puts it in its proper perspective. My proposals also mean that each field of administration can be opened

gradually to public participation. The alternative of advancing the constitution of the Urban Council at the same time as giving it new

functions means that the transition in the fields of administration

involved may be over night from pure bureaucracy to the most advanced type of democracy we have. There will be objections to all proposals

for fields of administration for the new treatment, and I do not

in this paper rehearse the difficulties for they will argue for

themselves. The burden of this submission is that it is the absence

of development of institutions in fields other than sanitation,

amenities and resettlement management that is the major cause of

pressure to develop the Urban Council further. If this is accepted

then there are those whose objections will have to be overruled if the pressure to develop a single rival to Legislative Council is to

be eased.

/25.