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holders and feasible for the collectors themselves, some of whom may well have the same transport problems as departmental staff.
I should perhaps mention that refuse collection stops are sited off the main roads as far as possible.
With regard to the working hours for street sweeping; the day shift of approximately 1,400 workers starts at 7 a.m. and continues until 4:30 p.m., with a break for lunch. It is the aim of the department to ensure that all beats are swept by 9 a.m. and those parts of the beats along main streets should be swept before that time. It is, however, necessary to continue sweeping throughout the day in order to deal with the litter which is continuously deposited on roads and pavements.
A night shift of 140 sweepers works from 4:00 p.m. to midnight. In addition, there are 2 special cleansing squads operating in hawker areas at night.
86 labourer posts have been approved this year to increase the number of staff working on the night shift. When these posts have been filled, the number of labourers employed on night work will constitute 15% of the total beat sweeping strength. In addition, 2 more cleansing squads approved this year are to be formed for cleansing hawker areas by night. This increased sweeping should reduce the quantities of refuse to be transported during the day.
MR. BERNACCHI:- Mr. Chairman, you say when these posts have been filled. Do you mean that not all of the posts have yet been filled?
CHAIRMAN:- That is true, Sir. There is still some difficulty in obtaining staff for the Cleansing Division.
MR. BERNACCHI:- Is that difficulty one of the wage scale that is offered?
CHAIRMAN:- I think, Sir, that that must be the conclusion because as you know we had considerable difficulty last year in obtaining staff and when an adjustment of wages was made in, I think, September, we made a slight gain in recruitment but then matters levelled off and we have not progressed much beyond that point since then.
MR. BERNACCHI:- Could you, Mr. Chairman, as Director of Urban Services, look into the possibility of making another adjustment of the wage scale?
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
CHAIRMAN:- I am prepared, Sir, to make further representations on that point if need be.
MR. BERNACCHI:- Thank you.
MRS. LI:- Mr. Chairman, one more supplementary question. My concern is about this obstruction by collection vehicles and washing vehicles and obstructions on the main thoroughfares between the hours of 8 and 9 a.m. I have very often encountered such obstructions along Queen's Road East, whereby big traffic jams were caused and consequently I have not been able to get to the meetings at 8:30 (Laughter), and it is true because it actually happens many times that the washing vehicles stop at that place around 8:30. Maybe some arrangement could be made for these vehicles to be moved to side-streets, not to a main thoroughfare.
CHAIRMAN:- I would be glad to look into the point.
MRS. LI:- One other supplementary question, Mr. Chairman. You said in the last part of your answer that more labourers would be recruited. Could the number of sweepers be increased from 6 to midnight rather than 4 till midnight? Could these additional people be planned to sweep the streets from 6 to midnight?
CHAIRMAN:- Yes, that is the intention.
(12) MR. SOLOMON RAFEEK asked the following question:—
The Kaifong of Hung Hom District have complained of offensive smoke emanating from burning rubbish at To Kwa Wan near the Kowloon City Vehicular Ferry which the people consider harmful to their health. Will the Chairman please look into this matter, and see that an end is put to this nuisance?
THE CHAIRMAN replied as follows:-
This site has been used to burn abandoned baskets and boxes collected by staff of the Urban Services and the Resettlement Departments. It was selected in order to save the running time involved in journeys to the dump at Gin Drinkers Bay, thereby enabling maximum use to be made of available vehicles.
These baskets cannot be loaded into the refuse collection vehicles in Kowloon as the vehicles are not designed for carrying this type of bulky material, so lorries are used for the purpose instead. Some new lorries have now
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was not added as there was no clearly missing word due to OCR damage. The text was re-formatted into proper paragraphs and minor corrections were made. The original content and order were preserved.182
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Page 124 of 382
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holders and feasible for the collectors themselves, some of whom may well have the same transport problems as departmental staff.
I should perhaps mention that refuse collection stops are sited
off the main roads as far as possible.
With regard to the working hours for street sweeping; the day shift of approximately 1,400 workers starts at 7 a.m. and continues until 4.30 p.m., with a break for lunch. It is the aim of the department to ensure that all beats are swept by 9 a.m. and those parts of the beats along main streets should be swept before that time. It is, however, necessary to continue sweeping throughout the day in order to deal with the litter which is continuously de- posited on roads and pavements.
A night shift of 140 sweepers works from 4.00 p.m. to mid- night. In addition there are 2 special cleansing squads operating in hawker areas at night.
86 labourer posts have been approved this year to increase the number of staff working on the night shift. When these posts have been filled the number of labourers em- ployed on night work will constitute 15% of the total beat sweeping strength. In addition, 2 more cleansing squads approved this year are to be formed for cleansing hawker areas by night. This increased sweeping should reduce the quantities of refuse to be transported during the day.
MR, BERNACCHI :-Mr. Chairman, you say when these posts have been filled. Do you mean that not all of the posts have yet been filled?
CHAIRMAN:-That is true, Sir. There is still some difficulty in obtaining staff for the Cleansing Division.
MR. BERNACCHI:-Is that difficulty one of the wage scale that is offered?
CHAIRMAN:-I think, Sir, that that must be the conclusion because as you know we had considerable difficulty last year in obtaining staff and when an adjustment of wages was made in, I think, September, we made a slight gain in recruitment but then matters levelled off and we have not progressed much beyond that point since then.
MR. BERNACCHI: Could you Mr. Chairman, as Director of Urban Services, look into the possibility of making another adjustment of the wage scale?
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
227
CHAIRMAN:-I am prepared, Sir, to make further representations on that point if need be.
MR. BERNACCHI:-Thank you.
MRS. LI-Mr. Chairman, one more supplementary question. My concern is about this obstruction by collection vehicles and washing vehicles and obstructions on the main thoroughfares between the hours of 8 and 9 a.m. I have very often encountered such obstructions along Queen's Road East, whereby big traffic jams were caused and con- sequently I have not been able to get to the meetings at 8.30 (Laughter), and it is true because it actually happens many times that the washing vehicles stop at that place around 8.30. Maybe some arrangement could be made for these vehicles to be moved to side-streets not to a main thoroughfare.
CHAIRMAN: —I would be glad to look into the point.
MRS. L1:-One other supplementary question, Mr. Chairman. You said in the last part of your answer that more labourers would be recruited. Could the number of sweepers be increased from 6 to mid- night rather than 4 till midnight. Could these additional people be planned to sweep the streets from 6 to midnight?
CHAIRMAN: -Yes, that is the intention.
(12) MR. SOLOMON RAFEEK asked the following question:—
The Kaifong of Hung Hom District have complained of offensive smoke emanating from burning rubbish at To Kwa Wan near the Kowloon City Vehicular Ferry which the people consider harmful to their health. Will the Chairman please look into this matter, and see that
an end is put to this nuisance?
THE CHAIRMAN replied as follows:-
This site has been used to burn abandoned baskets and boxes collected by staff of the Urban Services and the Resettle- ment Departments. It was selected in order to save the running time involved in journeys to the dump at Gin Drinkers Bay, thereby enabling maximum use to be made of available vehicles.
These baskets cannot be loaded into the refuse collection vehicles in Kowloon as the vehicles are not designed for carrying this type of bulky material, so lorries are used for the purpose instead. Some new lorries have now
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