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Boards are district consultative bodies. When formulating urban services policies concerning the various districts, the Urban and Regional Councils should consult District Boards and the different community groups. There is need for the District Relations Select Committee to ensure good communication and exchange of views between the Council and District Boards so that the former when formulating major policies will be able to fully consider the views of the various districts.

4.3 What should be the size and composition of the future unified municipal services body? In what ways should its members be selected? If there are different ways of selection, what should be the ratio of members thus selected?

Most members agree that a unified municipal services body will have many merits in providing municipal services and improving the public's living. They have also thought out a possible size and composition of the unified structure.

The size of the municipal services body should be in keeping with the changing population in Hong Kong and members have in general agreed on 45 members as the appropriate size. The Urban Council presently carries out its work through 13 Select Committees. Assuming that in future, due to the expansion of municipal services, 14 Select Committees are required, the 45 members may each participate in 4 of the Committees which each consists of approximately 12 to 14 members. While too few members will mean heavier burdens and lower efficiency, too many members will cause problems in the functioning of the body.

Of the 45 members, two-thirds (i.e. 30) will be directly elected from constituencies each comprising about 200,000 to 250,000 people. Members elected will be responsible for a larger number of people. The other one-third (i.e. 15) will be selected on account of professional knowledge and experience. When selecting members for these 15 seats, consideration should be given to whether a candidate can directly contribute his knowledge to the work of the municipal services body and balance district interests that may arise from direct elections by constituencies. If the 30 directly elected members do not include legal professionals, at least one of the other 15 seats should be given to them so as to enlist their service. Members with professional knowledge and working experience will mainly be selected through the appointment system or elections by functional constituencies. The appointment system gives the appointor the powers to appoint members in consideration of the needs or inadequacies of the municipal services body. So the system has its merits. If the future Chief Executive of Hong Kong (the appointor) is responsible to the legislature, he should do his best to prevent the appointment system from becoming too politics-oriented. Elections by functional constituencies, while serving to secure seats for talents from certain groups, may result in too many seats being given to these people. For example, if several legal professionals have already been returned by direct elections, the legal functional constituency's entitlement of seat(s) will bring about an overlap and thus imbalance of talents in the future unified municipal services body.

Conclusion

The Urban and Regional Councils, the second tier of government that serves to provide municipal services to the public and improve their living, should be maintained. Most members consider that if in future the Urban and Regional Councils are united into a single body, management and administration will be more efficiently coordinated, and manpower and resources better allocated. This will help simplify the structure of government, integrate communities which have different traditions and values due to geographical division, and enhance the influence on municipal services policies made by the government.

As a unified body will have many merits, members have studied which services should be improved and what powers enlarged after the Urban and Regional Councils have been incorporated into a single municipal services body. After detailed discussion, members consider that the following services will be more efficiently provided through enlargement of powers-

(A) Public health

----coordinate and manage the handling of refuse on land (presently work of the Urban and Regional Councils) and on sea (presently work of the Marine Department);

----place greater emphasis on the promotion of education on environmental hygiene, public health, food hygiene and prevention of disease;

----take over from the Housing Authority the responsibility for management of markets in housing estates;

----work out an effective and official means to coordinate hawker policies of the municipal services body and the Housing Authority;

(B) Recreation

----take the initiative in the organization of international sports activities and tournaments to take place in Hong Kong; and set up a review committee to coordinate work of the municipal services body and the Council for Sports and Recreation;

----take over responsibility for management of country parks;

----incorporate the Recreation and Sports Office (sic) to coordinate the promotion of recreation and sports.

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