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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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which smoke comes out of factory chimneys as they affect the public health?
CHAIRMAN:-Sir, with your permission, I would like to leave that We have two other supplementary question until later in the meeting. questions on chimneys and smoke, and perhaps the answer will emerge from those.
(2) DR. A. M. S. BELL asked the following question:
What steps are being taken to ensure that there is no further danger of falling rocks and boulders or landslides in the Urban Council playgrounds and in the rest of the Colony generally, in the event of any further heavy rains falling?
THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS replied as follows:-
I am afraid that the possibility of falling rocks and landslides can never be eliminated however many precautions Government and private developers may take. However, much can be done to reduce this danger.
2.
3.
The most important precaution is to provide and maintain adequate drainage, particularly to cutting and filling slopes. That this precaution is being taken was shown during the recent heavy rainstorm in that comparatively few cutting or filling slopes failed. In the majority of cases slips started on natural hillsides covered with vegetation. These slips, with the rocks and trees that came with them, blocked road culverts and nullahs causing them to overflow so that masses of water found its own way down the hillside with disastrous effect. Again, these slips occurred generally within an area where between 5 and 6 inches of rain fell in a single hour on ground already well soaked by several days of heavy rainfall. Where intensities were of the order of 4″ per hour-still an exceedingly high figure-damage was slight.
Since the rainstorm of 12th June we have removed many dangerous rocks and boulders from the hillsides and we are always ready to do this if the presence of such a danger is brought to our notice, either by members of the public or other Government departments. Besides this, we ourselves always keep a lookout for boulders which may threaten both private and public property, but it is not always possible to differentiate between safe and potentially dangerous ones. For instance, roads, hillsides
4.
5.
and rocks which were, to all intents and purposes, completely safe on the night of 11th June had collapsed or slipped by mid-day of June 12th.
The precautions described above apply as much to Urban Council playgrounds as to the rest of the Colony. Damage to such playgrounds was, in fact, slight.
Beaches suffered very little damage although a landslide has seriously affected the small beach at Hair Pin Bend.
DR. BELL: Mr. Chairman, may I, through you, ask a supplementary question? Do you know that during the rains which fell as recently as last Sunday-perhaps Mr. WRIGHT is aware that two rocks fell, one on the Tai Po Road behind the Carlton Hotel and one on the Lung Cheung Road behind a block of new flats which eventually resulted in a lot of water coming down. One of the reasons why I ask this question is that it is no use crying over spilt milk-there should be precautions taken so that such rocks cannot crash down the hillsides as a result of having been loosened in heavy rainstorms. Is the Public Works Department taking precautions now in such areas along main thoroughfares where many cars pass?
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS:-Mr. Chairman, the Public Works Department has no facilities for covering the hillsides of Hong Kong and Kowloon looking for dangerous rocks.
DR. BELL: Mr. Chairman, has any department got facilities? Has perhaps the Agriculture and Forestry Department got these facilities? They do keep many paths going over the hillsides.
CHAIRMAN:-Dr. BELL, I will address an enquiry to the Director of Agriculture and Forestry and let you have a personal reply. I should say on this point that your supplementary had no reference to Urban Council playgrounds.
DR. BELL: No, but it has reference, Sir, to the question which concerns the Council-the Colony generally. I would like in clarification to say a few words. About six or seven years ago a rock crashed down on the Tai Po Road on top of a car in which I was travelling, so I have got a sort of feeling of concern towards this thing. The one that crashed down the other day very narrowly missed a car. I witnessed it.
(3) DR. A. M. S. BELL asked the following question:
(a) When this Council licenses a restaurant situated on the ground floor of a multi-storey building which contains
"
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Page 69 of 279
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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Page 69 of 279
117
which smoke comes out of factory chimneys as they affect the public health?
CHAIRMAN:-Sir, with your permission, I would like to leave that We have two other supplementary question until later in the meeting. questions on chimneys and smoke, and perhaps the answer will emerge from those.
(2) DR. A. M. S. BELL asked the following question:
What steps are being taken to ensure that there is no further danger of falling rocks and boulders or landslides in the Urban Council playgrounds and in the rest of the Colony generally, in the event of any further heavy rains falling?
THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS replied as follows:-
can
I am afraid that the possibility of falling rocks and landslides never be eliminated however many precautions Government and private developers may take. However, much can be done to reduce this danger.
2.
3.
The most important precaution is to provide and maintain adequate drainage, particularly to cutting and filling slopes. That this precaution is being taken was shown during the recent heavy rainstorm in that comparatively few cutting or filling slopes failed. In the majority of cases slips started on natural hillsides covered with vegeta- tion. These slips, with the rocks and trees that came with them, blocked road culverts and nullahs causing them to overflow so that masses of water found its own way down the hillside with disastrous effect. Again, these slips occurred generally within an area where between 5 and 6 inches of rain fell in a single hour on ground already well soaked by several days of heavy rainfall. Where intensities were of the order of 4′′ per hour-still an exceedingly high figure-damage was slight.
Since the rainstorm of 12th June we have removed many dangerous rocks and boulders from the hillsides and we are always ready to do this if the presence of such a danger is brought to our notice, either by members of the public or other Government departments. Besides this, we ourselves always keep a lookout for boulders which may threaten both private and public property, but it is not always possible to differentiate between safe and potentially dangerous ones. For instance, roads, hillsides
4.
5.
and rocks which were, to all intents and purposes, com- pletely safe on the night of 11th June had collapsed or slipped by mid-day of June 12th.
The precautions described above apply as much to Urban Council playgrounds as to the rest of the Colony. Damage to such playgrounds was, in fact, slight.
Beaches suffered very little damage although a landslide has seriously affected the small beach at Hair Pin Bend.
DR. BELL: Mr. Chairman, may I, through you, ask a supple- mentary question? Do you know that during the rains which fell as recently ago as last Sunday-perhaps Mr. WRIGHT is aware that two rocks fell, one on the Tai Po Road behind the Carlton Hotel and one on the Lung Cheung Road behind a block of new flats which eventually resulted in a lot of water coming down. One of the reasons why I ask this question is that it is no use crying over spilt milk-there should be precautions taken so that such rocks cannot crash down the hillsides as a result of having been loosened in heavy rainstorms. Is the Public Works Department taking precautions now in such areas along main thoroughfares where many cars pass?
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: -Mr. Chairman, the Public Works Department has no facilities for covering the hillsides of Hong Kong and Kowloon looking for dangerous rocks.
DR. BELL:Mr. Chairman, has any department got facilities? Has perhaps the Agriculture and Forestry Department got these facili- ties? They do keep many paths going over the hillsides.
CHAIRMAN :-Dr. BELL, I will address an enquiry to the Director of Agriculture and Forestry and let you have a personal reply. I should say on this point that your supplementary had no reference to Urban Council playgrounds.
DR. BELL: No, but it has reference, Sir, to the question which concerns the Council-the Colony generally. I would like in clarifica- tion to say a few words. About six or seven years ago a rock crashed down on the Tai Po Road on top of a car in which I was travelling, so I have got a sort of feeling of concern towards this thing. The one that crashed down the other day very narrowly missed a car. I witnessed it.
(3) DR. A. M. S. BELL asked the following question:
(a) When this Council licenses a restaurant situated on the ground floor of a multi-storey building which contains
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