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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

increasing

With our ambitious capital expenditure programme, there is an ever number of new facilities being completed each year which results in more amenities becoming available to our citizens but this also inequitably results in an ever increasing level of costs to be borne by the Council and most of these costs comprises staff emoluments.

As our recurrent expenditure on staff salaries is rising at a compound rate of nearly 10% per annum, it is an area which is gaining in importance each year.

A value for money working group has been in existence for a number of years. Reports are issued by the working group on a regular basis to a Steering Committee of which the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Administration Select Committee are members. Whilst the work of this group to date has produced encouraging results and a number of opportunities for substantial savings have been identified, I do not believe that we can feel complacent because it is obvious that their task is by no means complete. The group is small in size and it will take them a long time before they can review all aspects of the Council's operations even at a not too detailed level. Furthermore one must not under-estimate the difficulties in actually implementing the findings and recom- mendations of the group. In view of the importance of this worthwhile activity to the Council, I urge that additional resources be allocated to this effort so as to enable the working group to make progress at an increased pace. Specifically, I believe that an overall work plan with target dates should be drawn up so that all areas of the Council's activities are examined by the group within a reasonable time scale. I would also urge that full support is given both by the Council and the Department to the findings and recommendation of the working group so that the opportunities for cost savings identified are actually put into practice and that implementation is being carried out at the earliest possible opportunity. In order to demonstrate the contribution of this activity to the Council's finances, Councillor should receive reports of their activities including information specifically on the actual cash savings rather than motional savings made to date on a more regular basis.

Another means of achieving the aim set out in my opening remarks of containing the size of the establishment and adopting more cost effective ways of carrying out the Council's functions is privatization. This is particularly so because of an arrangement between the Council and Government whereby the Council is obliged to pay an on costs to Government based on the actual salaries paid to staff working for the Urban Services Department for the normal civil service fringe benefits. This council has resolved some time ago to concentrate its efforts on examining the practicabilities of privatizing the abattoirs in view of the substantial losses being incurred by this Council each year in running these facilities. We are informed that a number of seemingly insurmountable problems have been identified and their resolution is by no means certain. In the meantime, all proposals for privatization of other activities have been held in abeyance. As the question of privatization of the

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abattoirs have been under consideration for a considerable period of time, it is high time for this Council to re-examine its overall policy on privatization. If the Council reaffirm its earlier decision that privatization of other activities should not be pursued until the question of privatization of the abattoirs is resolved, then, decisive action must be taken to overcome the obstacles identified without further delay. Alternatively, if it is acknowledged that the resolution to these problems is unlikely to be achieved in the short term, then it may be appropriate to revise the current policy so that examination of other opportunities for privatization may proceed.

With these remarks, I support the motion.

(Miss Cecilia L. Y. YEUNG left the meeting at 2.50 p.m.)

MR. CHOW WAI-KEUNG (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, in the past two years as an Urban Councillor, many residents of old areas in Central and Western District have complained to me about the refuse collection service. The Urban Council has spent a lot of resources in promoting the Keep Hong Kong Clean Campaign and has deployed a lot of resources to see to it that the Keep Hong Kong Clean Campaign is realised by people that they must all work for better environment. In the old areas in the Central and Western district, there are many old tenement buildings which are 6-storey high and are not provided with lifts. In the past, the refuse was collected by cleaners who collected refuse from each individual floor. But with the advance of time, these buildings are how managed by cleaning companies on a collective basis. Since the old tenement buildings usually do not have a lot of units, the residents are unable to pay for fees charged by the cleaning company. Hence no collection of refuse is done in these buildings. In the side streets and alleys between 8 to 10 every night, a lot of people take their refuse inside the plastic bags and throw them in the street corners or put them into our litter bins or near our litter bins. Although we have repeatedly urged them not to place refuse in our litter bins, this situation still continues every night. I think the Urban Council has the responsibility in the coming period to study this problem which is quite prevalent in the older districts. We must try to help those who cannot find the cleaning contractors to clean their buildings on their behalf so that they would not be forced to commit an offence and their daily problem of refuse collection can be solved.

The second point I would like to discuss is the matter concerning the Kennedy Town Abattoir. We have studied for a long time the question of privatization and we are now aware that there are a lot of problems on privatization. The residents nearby the abattoir always complain that it creates a lot of environmental nuisances. For example, the lorries carrying cattle's and pigs' give rise to a lot of undesirable smells and the cattles or the pigs screaming at night disturb the tranquility of the residents. Beside the abattoir, the by-product plant is regarded as a source of the greatest problem in terms of environmental pollution. Even the EPA regards that the environment of the