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ance in British Commonwealth countries, the Hong Kong Government is urged to appoint a committee to study and to recommend on the feasibility of a Hong Kong Ombudsman".
Could the Chairman inform this Council whether anything has happened in respect to this Motion, in particular whether it has been accepted by His Excellency the Governor in Council, and whether a committee will soon be appointed to study the feasibility of a Hong Kong Ombudsman?
THE CHAIRMAN, URBAN COUNCIL, replied as follows:-
This question concerns a Motion passed by this Council to the effect that Government be urged to appoint a committee to study the feasibility of a Hong Kong Ombudsman. The record of debate on the Motion was submitted to the Secretariat and Members were informed that His Excellency the Governor, having noted the views expressed by Members, did not propose to appoint a committee at the time, but would review the matter again when more experience had been gained of the working of the Umelco Office and the more recently introduced Ward System of the Council, which already appeared to be achieving valuable results.
I am now informed that no decision has yet been taken to appoint a committee, but that various means of achieving similar objectives continue to be explored: the latest being the City District Office scheme.
MR. BERNACCHI:--Mr. Chairman, a supplementary. Is the District Officer meant to be an Ombudsman despite the fact that he is a Government Servant, despite the fact that he has no files at his disposal and despite the fact that his main object is to deal with the reactions of his community rather than personal complaints of injustice?
CHAIRMAN:-I must rule that question out of order, Mr. BERNACCHI.
MR. BERNACCHI:--Then I would put it in another form, and ask you, Mr. Chairman, to clarify your answer when you say that "the latest being the City District Officer's scheme". Does this imply that the Government or Governor considers the District Officer's scheme as an Ombudsman scheme or as a substitute for an Ombudsman scheme?
CHAIRMAN:-I think the answer is "no" to both parts of that question, Mr. BERNACCHI.
MR. BERNACCHI:-Thank you.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
(2) MR. B. A. BERNACCHI asked the following question:
335
The Slum Clearance Report of two years ago was referred to this Council for comments, and as far as I remember we adopt the comments that the Housing Authority have made which was in effect that we endorsed the Slum Clearance Report but wanted the Housing Authority to play a bigger part in such slum clearance.
(a) What has happened to our comments on the Slum Clearance Report?
(b) Have they been accepted?
(c) Can the Chairman say when the slum clearance will begin?
THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS replied as follows:-
The Report of the Working Party, together with a summary of the comments of the Urban Council, the Housing Authority, Housing Board and all interested Government Departments, were considered by Executive Council on 22nd August, 1967. After studying these various comments the Governor-in-Council directed, firstly, that drafting should proceed of such legislation as may be necessary to allow a scheme for urban renewal to go ahead and, secondly, that the Public Works Department should prepare a planning and engineering feasibility study of a pilot scheme.
Good progress has been made on the legislative drafting. The planning and engineering feasibility study has been completed.
As Mr. BERNACCHI says in his question, the Urban Council generally endorsed the recommendations of the Working Party with the exception of that which recommended that land resumed in an urban renewal area and not required for community purposes should be disposed of for redevelopment by private developers. The Council felt that the cleared sites should be handed over to either the Housing Authority or to some other specialist Government agency established for that specific purpose. No decision has yet been taken on how the cleared sites should be redeveloped.
I am unable to say when slum clearance in the form envisaged in the Working Party's Report will be commenced, since this is dependent on a number of decisions still to be taken by Government. However, Members may recall that in its Report the Working Party stressed the importance of
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Page 211 of 243
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ance in British Commonwealth countries, the Hong Kong Government is urged to appoint a committee to study and to recommend on the feasibility of a Hong Kong Ombudsman".
Could the Chairman inform this Council whether any- thing has happened in respect to this Motion, in partic- ular whether it has been accepted by His Excellency the Governor in Council, and whether a committee will soon be appointed to study the feasibility of a Hong Kong Ombudsman?
THE CHAIRMAN, URBAN COUNCIL, replied as follows:-
This question concerns a Motion passed by this Council to the effect that Government be urged to appoint a committee to study the feasibility of a Hong Kong Ombudsman. The record of debate on the Motion was submitted to the Secretariat and Members were informed that His Excellency the Governor, having noted the views expressed by Members, did not propose to appoint a committee at the time, but would review the matter again when more experience had been gained of the working of the Umelco Office and the more recently introduced Ward System of the Council, which already appeared to be achieving valuable results.
I am now informed that no decision has yet been taken to appoint a committee, but that various means of achieving similar objectives continue to be explored: the latest being the City District Office scheme.
MR. BERNACCHI:--Mr. Chairman, a supplementary. Is the District Officer meant to be an Ombudsman despite the fact that he is a Govern- ment Servant, despite the fact that he has no files at his disposal and despite the fact that his main object is to deal with the reactions of his community rather than personal complaints of injustice?
CHAIRMAN:-I must rule that question out of order, Mr. BERNACCHI. MR. BERNACCHI: --Then I would put it in another form, and ask you, Mr. Chairman, to clarify your answer when you say that "the latest being the City District Officer's scheme". Does this imply that the Government or Governor considers the District Officer's scheme as an Ombudsman scheme or as a substitute for an Ombudsman scheme?
CHAIRMAN: -I think the answer is "no" to both parts of that question, Mr. BERNACCHI.
MR. BERNACCHI:-Thank you.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
(2) MR. B. A. BERNACCHI asked the following question:
335
The Slum Clearance Report of two years ago was referred to this Council for comments, and as far as I remember we adopt the comments that the Housing Authority have made which was in effect that we endorsed the Slum Clearance Report but wanted the Housing Authority to play a bigger part in such slum clearance.
(a) What has happened to our comments on the Slum
Clearance Report?
(b) Have they been accepted?
(c) Can the Chairman say when the slum clearance
will begin?
THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS replied as follows:-
The Report of the Working Party, together with a summary of the comments of the Urban Council, the Housing Authority, Housing Board and all interested Government Departments, were considered by Executive Council on 22nd August, 1967. After studying these various com- ments the Governor-in-Council directed, firstly, that drafting should proceed of such legislation as may be necessary to allow a scheme for urban renewal to go ahead and, secondly, that the Public Works Department should prepare a planning and engineering feasibility study of a pilot scheme.
Good progress has been made on the legislative drafting. The planning and engineering feasibility study has been com- pleted.
As Mr. BERNACCHI says in his question, the Urban Council generally endorsed the recommendations of the Working Party with the exception of that which recommended that land resumed in an urban renewal area and not required for community purposes should be disposed of for re- development by private developers. The Council felt that the cleared sites should be handed over to either the Housing Authority or to some other specialist Govern- ment agency established for that specific purpose. No decision has yet been taken on how the cleared sites should be redeveloped.
I am unable to say when slum clearance in the form envisaged in the Working Party's Report will be commenced, since this is dependent on a number of decisions still to be taken by Government. However, Members may recall that in its Report the Working Party stressed the importance of
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Private notes are available after approval.