1975 — Page 141

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

ADDRESS BY CHAIRMAN

CHAIRMAN (in English):-Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first. meeting of the Lunar New Year, so I would like to wish you all: Sun Nin Fai Lok, Man Shi Shing Yee. Kung Hei! Kung Hei! (Applause). I hope that you will appreciate the very pucka Cantonese accent not often heard in this Chamber. (Laughter).

MINUTES

The minutes of the meetings held on 20th and 22nd January, 1976 were confirmed.

PAPER

The following paper was laid on the table:

―

Report to the Urban Council by the Director of Urban Services and Secretary, Urban Council, for the month of January 1976.

QUESTIONS

(1) MR. AMBROSE K. C. CHOI asked the following question (in Cantonese):-

(a) Having regard to the fact that there is a refuse collection point located at Sai Yee Street, Kowloon between the Hong Kong Vernacular Normal School, Alumni Assn. Primary School and the Chi Kit School, very close to six Cooked Food Stalls, is it possible for the Urban Services Depart- ment to remove the point?

(b) Is it sanitary to have a refuse collection point placed adjacent to the Cooked Food Stalls and the schools where there are more than two thousand students?

DR. DENNY M. H. HUANG, CHAIRMAN OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in Cantonese):

Mr. Chairman, the refuse collection point to which Mr. CHOI refers is an on-street point situated at the junction of Soy Street and Sai Yee Street. It serves the area bounded by Argyle Street, Yim Po Fong Street, Dundas Street and Nathan Road which is densely populated and associated

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with heavy hawker activities. The daily turnover of refuse at this point is 1,000 baskets, equivalent to three truckloads, plus another four lorry loads of junk. Its site is in fact close to a cooked food stall and a school and has hitherto been accepted because there was no alter- native. More recently, after an exhaustive survey, a temporary alternative site at the side of McPherson Play- ground has been found. If the new site is agreed by the Traffic Police and the Transport Department and the four metered parking spaces there are removed, this refuse collecting point will be moved from Sai Yee Street to the new site. In due course, complaints will no doubt be made about this new site.

As a long-term measure, the proposed new market project on an adjacent site now occupied by the Soy Street hawker bazaar will incorporate a permanent off-street refuse collec- tion point. This will replace the Sai Yee Street on-street point and any other similar points in the vicinity.

(Miss Cecilia L. Y. YEUNG arrived at this point.)

MR. CHOI (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, the answer given is a very detailed one, but does Dr. HUANG know that this refuse collection point is right in front of the H.K. Vernacular Normal School and is very close to a cooked food stall? I am not sure if Dr. HUANG is aware of this point. I have been there several times and I have sent letters to the Urban Services Department. People take their food from the cooked food stall which is just adjacent to a refuse collection point, I do not know whether this is an insanitary or unhygienic condition?

DR. HUANG (in Cantonese):-Thank you. I know the actual condi- tion at the refuse collection point, but as I have just said, the point is situated in a densely populated area and any other point near that vicinity would be unacceptable. After a lot of effort, we found a site adjacent to the McPherson Playground and we hope that this can be moved as soon as possible.

MRS. E. ELLIOTT (in English):-Mr. Chairman, if that refuse collection point is moved to the site near McPherson Playground, does Dr. HUANG realize that that playground is unbearably hot in summer and would be worse if you have a garbage point next door?

DR. HUANG (in Cantonese):-As I have said, we cannot do away with refuse collection points. No matter where we locate these points,