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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

MR. FREDERICK FUNG (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, Miss YEUNG has mentioned about invitation of District Board members to our select committee meetings, for example, the Clean Hong Kong Committee. I would like to commend her select committee for doing so, and would like to ask her whether we will extend the invitation to other meetings within the Council? Will we invite the District Board members to attend other meetings, so that during the meeting, the District Board members will know more about the Urban Council and we will have other additional informal meetings with the District Boards?

MISS CECILIA YEUNG (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, concerning the first question asked, other than the Clean Hong Kong Committee, members of the Working Party to Review Hawker and Related Policies have visited the District Boards. There have been direct consultation and discussion and we have explained to them our terms of reference and execution of our policies. Of course, we will consider in future to contact the district board members and to provide more chances of discussion, yes, we will surely take note of Mr. Fung's suggestion. Concerning your second question about the working procedure of this committee, yes, we will step up liaison work with the District Board members and we hope that we will have more opportunities to sit together, so that we can explain to them our work. But sometimes, we cannot explain our work all at once to them, we hope that the Urban Councillors sitting in District Boards will explain individual issues to District Boards members when questions arise. We hope that we can give them answers directly during District Board meetings that will be a more direct way of explaining our work to them. Of course, we hope that in future we will have more informal meetings, so that there will be a closer relationship between the District Boards and Urban Council and in these friendly informal meetings we can explain to them more about the Urban Council's operation.

MR. STEPHEN LAU (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, just now, Miss Yeung has told us that we have two or four Councillors sitting in District Boards, and she has also told us that with the presence of the Urban Councillors, the District Board members will know more about the work of the Urban Council, but this is not the case, actually not many District Board members know about the Urban Council or the work of the Urban Council. I hope that in future Miss YEUNG will study the question in her select committee meeting and see what more constructive methods there are to improve the relationship between the District Boards and the Urban Council.

MISS CECILIA YEUNG (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, Mr. LAU's point is very valid, but our select committee is working very hard to achieve our aim and, of course, we are reviewing the whole thing from time to time but this is not a one-way traffic, of course, we still need the cooperation of the District Boards, and they must be willing to communicate with us. Sometimes, I am talking about myself, I am also a District Board member, Mr. Chairman, you are also a District Board member and you may share my feelings, sometimes we feel that it is very difficult for us to give direct answers to questions raised by the District Board members, for example, we do not know whether the District Board members consider us as their members. I will just cite you a very simple example, Mr. LAU; in the Wong Tai Sin District Board, we have one form printing out all the names of the Wong Tai Sin District Board members but the names and the photos of the four Urban Councillors have been left out and we really do not know whether they accept us as District Board members or not, we also sometimes have doubt about our own status.

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MR. TONG KAM-BIU (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, just now, Miss YEUNG has told us that we are trying to continue to maintain and enhance good relationship between Urban Council and District Boards, but I discover that we have not allocated funds to this select committee. Now members have talked about organizing informal regular meetings and printing out pamphlets, and from 1985/86 we still do not have a vote for this particular select committee. So I really do not know how Miss YEUNG can possibly organize all these activities and to print out all these pamphlets without money. (laughter)

MISS CECILIA YEUNG (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank Mr. TONG, since he is the vice-chairman, he understands the difficulties faced by the select committee. Yes, we really do have a lot of ideas but it is very difficult to put these ideas into practice. In the past, USD had been sending out staff to contact these District Boards and they did have these informal meetings. Usually during these meetings we can over cups of tea explain to them our work and they can also raise their questions during these meetings, but now we really do not have any of these informal meetings any more. I hope that you, Mr. Chairman, would consider allocating some Urban Council funds to the select committee, because our select committee has a very important role to play, and then we can really settle this question raised by Mr. TONG and we hope that we can really put ideas into practice.

MR. PAO (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, in Miss YEUNG's reply, the fourth point it has mentioned that the Urban Council has been doing a lot of work, for example, joint ventures with the District Boards, support and assistance to District Boards, and the joint activities. I understand that the District Relations Select Committee has done a lot but I think we should play a more important role in district management, perhaps the Urban Council can consider participating in district management activities and also the management of local facilities, let us say local gardens, recreational facilities, cultural facilities, etc. When I talk about district management services, I am talking also about environmental hygiene improvement services, perhaps we should also set up units to deal with these activities and these units can cooperate with the District Boards because I do not think we can achieve much, just by sending individual Councillor to explain our work to the district board members. Of course, Miss YEUNG...