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# HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
The Council is the biggest individual employer of labour in Hong Kong. Consequently, staff matters must loom large in our thinking. Wages absorb an alarming part of our rate revenue.
So, output of work at every level needs to be kept under review and improved where possible. Numbers could become excessive and costs even more burdensome unless controlled closely. Staff training for more productive work should be conducted vigorously. Also, the Council could never stress enough the need to maintain courteous staff relations with the public. But, asking the department to give the best service to the community must be backed by constantly reviewing job requirements, giving ever better training opportunities, encouraging more selective recruitment and raising standards of performance. All this is being done.
## Finance
Our surplus funds enabled us to introduce in our second year the switch-finance arrangement with the Government by which it has been possible to accelerate beyond expectation the construction of many projects of which the public would otherwise have been deprived for many more years. Being in surplus has also meant that the Council could embark on activities hitherto not within the enjoyment of the man in the street.
But, the truth is less reassuring. We get actually in revenue from our share of the rate only 10% more than what we pay the staff. By itself, and without our secondary sources, this small difference is not enough for us to do all our many other jobs, both statutory and permissive. Even this narrow margin is likely to be reduced drastically or wiped out altogether by any salary adjustment the Government may make. In such an event, the Council would be compelled to ask for a higher share of the 17% rate. Ours is now only 6% while the Government keeps 11%, which it increased from 9% last year while we have maintained our level since 1973 and it was not expected that we could do so. Alternatively, we could seek an outright cash grant from the Government for all the salary awards made since 1st April, 1973 and again for whatever adjustment it might make in future.
## Works
Never has the Council completed so many projects and started so many more as in the three productive years we have been on our own. Many more projects should be started without loss of time to take advantage of current construction costs and thereby provide the public with more civic amenities, hence we are pressing ahead. All requirements are carefully assessed and serious deliberations take place successively in the three or even four select committees concerned each time, and there is close consultation with the P.W.D. Curiously, from the time we reach a decision until completion, the period of gestation of some of our projects seems to me to be too long. There is a sense of urgency in the Council which, I suspect, is not shared altogether by the Government.
## The Environment
By dint of hard work by many departments in support of the Council, Hong Kong has become far cleaner than it was not so many years ago when the whole territory had been allowed to become disgracefully dirty and badly littered after the heavy increase in our population had created grossly overcrowded and unsatisfactory living conditions. There are still many aspects of cleansing work which keeping require stronger action by the Urban Services Department. Hong Kong clean must be accepted without demur as the direct responsibility of the Department. This essential work should be taken for granted. The combined effort of all the departments that have assisted the Council in the last four years or so is much appreciated, nevertheless.
While persuasion will probably take new forms to meet changing targets, and presumably civic education in this connection will continue, it is through strong enforcement measures that Hong Kong will succeed in having a clean environment. Here, there is not the positive attitude in support of such a vital health and social objective that we might expect. On our part, we can only take out a summons to make an offender realize that he too must correct his anti-social habits of discarding litter in the streets or throwing it from moving vehicles, and even dumping household refuse from upper storeys of high-rise buildings, while the rest is still up to the anti-litter courts. Unless they respond in a realistic manner to what the community expects of them, with good reason, I fear all exhortations by way of expensive campaigns, will be of less avail each time.
## Burial and Cremation
To bury the dead with dignity is accepted as the duty of any society for as long as man can remember. In Hong Kong there is not all the land needed for doing so and still meet other community requirements as well. As a necessity, therefore, cremation has been encouraged. Response has improved perhaps as the cost of burial has gone up
Page 143 of 154
Page 143 of 154
Page 143 of 154
251
250
Administration
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
The Council is the biggest individual employer of labour in Hong Kong. Consequently, staff matters must loom large in our thinking. Wages absorb an alarming part of our rate revenue.
So, output of work at every level needs to be kept under review and improved where possible. Numbers could become excessive and costs even more burdensome unless controlled closely. Staff training for more pro- ductive work should be conducted vigorously. Also, the Council could never stress enough the need to maintain courteous staff relations with the public. But, asking the department to give the best service to the community must be backed by constantly reviewing job requirements, giving ever better training opportunities, encouraging more selective recruitment and raising standards of performance. All this is being done.
Finance
Our surplus funds enabled us to introduce in our second year the switch-finance arrangement with the Government by which it has been possible to accelerate beyond expectation the construction of many projects of which the public would otherwise have been deprived for many more years. Being in surplus has also meant that the Council could embark on activities hitherto not within the enjoyment of the man in the street.
But, the truth is less reassuring. We get actually in revenue from our share of the rate only 10% more than what we pay the staff. By itself, and without our secondary sources, this small difference is not enough for us to do all our many other jobs, both statutory and permissive. Even this narrow margin is likely to be reduced drastically or wiped out altogether by any salary adjustment the Government may make. In such an event, the Council would be compelled to ask for a higher share of the 17% rate. Ours is now only 6% while the Government keeps 11%, which it increased from 9% last year while we have maintained our level since 1973 and it was not expected that we could do so. Alternatively, we could seek an outright cash grant from the Government for all the salary awards made since 1st April, 1973 and again for whatever adjustment it might make in future.
Works
Never has the Council completed so many projects and started so many more as in the three productive years we have been on our own. Many more projects should be started without loss of time to take advantage of current construction costs and thereby provide the public
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
with more civic amenities, hence we are pressing ahead. All require- ments are carefully assessed and serious deliberations take place successively in the three or even four select committees concerned each time, and there is close consultation with the P.W.D. Curiously, from the time we reach a decision until completion, the period of gestation of some of our projects seems to me to be too long. There is a sense of urgency in the Council which, I suspect, is not shared altogether by the Government.
The Environment
By dint of hard work by many departments in support of the Council, Hong Kong has become far cleaner than it was not so many years ago when the whole territory had been allowed to become dis- gracefully dirty and badly littered after the heavy increase in our population had created grossly overcrowed and unsatisfactory living conditions. There are still many aspects of cleansing work which Keeping require stronger action by the Urban Services Department. Hong Kong clean must be accepted without demur as the direct re- sponsibility of the Department. This essential work should be taken for granted. The combined effort of all the departments that have assisted the Council in the last four years or so is much appreciated, nevertheless.
While persuasion will probably take new forms to meet changing targets, and presumably civic education in this connection will continue, it is through strong enforcement measures that Hong Kong will succeed in having a clean environment. Here, there is not the positive attitude in support of such a vital health and social objective that we might expect. On our part, we can only take out a summons to make an offender realize that he too must correct his anti-social habits of discard- ing litter in the streets or throwing it from moving vehicles, and even dumping household refuse from upper storeys of high-rise buildings, while the rest is still up to the anti-litter courts. Unless they respond in a realistic manner to what the community expects of them, with good reason, I fear all exhortations by way of expensive campaigns, will be of less avail each time.
Burial and Cremation
To bury the dead with dignity is accepted as the duty of any society for as long as man can remember. In Hong Kong there is not all the land needed for doing so and still meet other community requirements as well. As a necessity, therefore, cremation has been encouraged. Response has improved perhaps as the cost of burial has gone up
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