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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

In the past the Urban Council has been grateful to be able to rent premises in some of the more isolated estates of the Hong Kong Housing Authority. The rents charged have always been reasonable. It was hoped that this operation with the Housing Authority might continue, to the mutual benefit of the Departments concerned and the estate tenants. Plans were made for setting up libraries in Oi Man and Tsz Wan Shan estate districts. It was also hoped that the Urban Council might continue its library services to the tenants of Wah Fu and Ping Shek Estates. Unfortunately, it now seems likely that the library services in existing estates will have to be abandoned as a result of

the Housing Authority's rental policy, which intends to charge commercial rents for premises used by voluntary agents or Government Departments providing service to the Housing Authority's own tenants, even where the service is free.

Some private landlords have favoured the Urban Council with better treatment. We should be grateful to the Mei Foo Sun Chuen Investment Company which not only provided space for a library at $1.15 a square foot, but also undertook to beautify the library environment at its own cost. Likewise, the Kwong Sang Hong Company is to be thanked for providing premises in the expensive Wan Chai district at a rent of $1.79, or one dollar a square foot cheaper than the rents proposed for library premises in Housing Authority estates.

The lease of the Wah Fu Library is about to expire, and the new rent quoted by the Housing Authority is $2.75 against the present 50 cents a square foot. That means a rise in rent from $6,000 a month to $33,000. A similar increase is expected when the lease of the Ping Shek Library premises expires in November 1979. These rates are said to be commercial rates, but our libraries are not a commercial enterprise.

This decision of the Housing Authority will influence our library programme, in that we shall have to house our originally planned Tsz Wan Shan Library in our own market premises in San Po Kong. The future of the Wah Fu Library and later this year the Ping Shek Library is now uncertain, but it is almost certain that these two libraries will have closed, to the detriment of the Housing Authority's own tenants.

It is hoped that the Housing Authority will reconsider its policy. As a member of the Authority myself, I have referred the matter for discussion by the Whole Authority, since an appeal by the Cultural Services Division of the Urban Services Department was turned down by the Housing Department without even being put again before the Management Select Committee, which made its decision on election day when all three elected Urban Council members of that committee were unable to attend.

I trust that all Urban Councillors who are also members of the Hong Kong Housing Authority, in particular the Chairman and Members of the Management Select Committee, will give this matter serious thought.

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

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MR KENNETH T. C. Lo (in English):-Mr Chairman, may I rise on a point of clarification. Mrs ELLIOTT, in her statement, has referred to the decision of the Management Committee of the Housing Authority, as to the rent charged for the Wah Fu Library. I am the Chairman of that Committee and I would like to clarify this particular matter. Mrs ELLIOTT refers to the fact that the decision was made at the Management Committee meeting which was held on the day which was also the Urban Council Election Day. So she and the other 2 elected members, I think they are Mr BERNACCHI and Dr Henry Hu, were unable to attend. This is perfectly understandable, but the fact of the matter is that that March meeting of the Management Committee merely carried on an earlier decision of the Management Committee which was made sometime last year. At that earlier meeting, the Committee considered the question of the rent to be charged for Government and Urban Council lettings, commercial premises let by Housing Authority to the Government or the Urban Council. At that meeting, Mrs ELLIOTT, among others, expressed the view that the Housing Authority should charge the market rent, the commercial rent, for such lettings and that there should be no subsidy. It then only remained for the commercial rent to be assessed by the Rating and Valuation Department. The rents for the Wah Fu Library were assessed at $33,000 per month and at the March meeting of the Management Committee, it was really a formal decision, the decision to charge the market rent which had already been taken at the earlier meeting and I would like to put this record straight.

CHAIRMAN (in English):-The position has been clarified by the Member of the Council who is the Chairman of the Management Committee of the Housing Authority. Mrs ELLIOTT, please.

MRS ELLIOTT (in English):-Mr Chairman, I must also clarify that at that meeting, no mention was ever made of $2.75. The figure mentioned then was $1 and that was the rate to be charged to other Government departments. It seems reasonable to charge the Urban Council $1. $2.75 was never mentioned until 8 March and the paper was printed on 7 March and did not reach me in time even to make a protest by letter.

CHAIRMAN (in English):-The matter has now been suitably clarified.

STATEMENT BY MR PETER P. F. CHAN, CHAIRMAN OF THE MARKETS AND ABATTOIRS SELECT COMMITTEE

MR PETER P. F. CHAN (in English):-Mr Chairman,

Market development programme

The Urban Council has always aimed at providing sufficient marketing facilities in the urban areas in order to cope with the growing demand

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