TNAG-0316-FCO40-352-Reform-of-local-government-of-Hong-Kong-1971 — Page 64

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G.F. 323

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Trade and Industry Advisory Board and many more. Other considerations apart, one of the reasons for not creating new bodies on a local basis is that satisfactory arrangements already exist for the provision of particular services by a Government Department with the advice of a body which includes members of the public. If new ways are sought of involving local residents to a greater extent in the processes of Government, it would seem to be logical to do so by allowing, and perhaps encouraging, the advisory bodies to develop on a Colony-wide functional basis rather than by investing additional powers in District Councils or in the Urban Council itself.

Urban Council

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The Urban Council already has a wide range of statutory functions in the fields of public health, cleansing, environmental hygiene, hawkers and markets, the management of abattoirs, the licensing of restaurants, the management of cemeteries and crematoria and the provision of recreational and cultural facilities to name only a few. (A full list of the Urban Council's functions is attached).

It

should also be noted that the Urban Services Department, though not the Urban Council, carries out a similar range of functions in the New Territories.

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BACKGROUND CONSIDERATIONS

The principal considerations to be borne in mind in any discussion of the future of the Urban Council are as follows -

(a) membership of the Urban Council provides an

opportunity for both elected and nominated Councillors to acquire practical experience in public administration;

(b) the Council is already entrusted with

important responsibilities which have a vital bearing on the health and general well being of the urban community;

(c) the Council itself in its March 1969 Report has asked for a substantial increase in its functions, as well as changes in the Council's composition, procedures and finances;

(d) it is desirable that the Council should have

a more clearly defined area of responsibility within which to operate. The present system under which the Council has a statutory responsibility for particular subjects but, on occasion, debates publicly a much wider range of subjects has led to confusion in the minds of the public about the Council's statutory function and its relation to the Central Government;

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