ENG-1990 — Page 42

CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION

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Urban Council

The Urban Council is a statutory council with responsibilities for the provision of municipal services to almost 3.6 million people in the urban areas. As such, the Urban Council has considerable executive authority and is charged with full responsibility for a wide range of municipal functions. These functions include street cleansing, refuse collection, control of environmental hygiene, and ensuring the hygienic handling and preparation of food in restaurants, shops, abattoirs and other places.

The Urban Council is also the authority for the control of hawkers and street-traders, although some of this devolves on the police as the council does not have the manpower or finance to shoulder the whole burden. An inter-departmental working party reviewing hawker control measures has submitted a report to the government with recommendations for improvement.

Within the urban area, the council also provides and manages all public recreation and sporting facilities such as swimming pools, parks, playgrounds, indoor and outdoor stadia, tennis courts, football grounds, squash courts and basketball courts, and promotes a large number of sports at district level.

The council manages museums, public libraries and several major cultural venues and multi-purpose facilities, including the City Hall, Queen Elizabeth Stadium and the Hong Kong Coliseum. It is currently involved in the construction of a major Science Museum and a new Museum of Art which are due to be opened in 1991. The Hong Kong Cultural - Centre, opened in November 1989, contains a new 2 100-seat concert hall, a theatre seating 1700 and a studio theatre accommodating about 500 persons. The council promotes cultural performances and runs a comprehensive programme of public entertainment throughout the urban areas.

The council consists of 40 members, 15 elected from district constituencies, 15 appointed by the Governor and 10 representative members from the urban district boards. The size of the council was increased from 30 to 40 members in 1989 with the addition of 10 representative members from the urban district boards. It meets in public once a month when it passes by-laws and deals with finances, formal motions and questions on its activities. The routine business of the Urban Council is conducted by the Standing Committee of the whole council, supported by 11 select committees and 18 working groups or sub-committees.

The Liquor Licensing Board and the Libraries Select Committee as well as the Keep Hong Kong Clean Committee have also opened their meetings to the public.

The council's chief executive is the Director of Urban Services, who controls the operations of the Urban Services Department with a staff of 18 000. The director is charged with carrying out the council's policies and implementing its decisions.

The council is financially autonomous and during 1989–90 it spent about $3,700 million on council-controlled activities and projects. It is financed by a share of the rates which forms the main part of its income, with the balance coming from various licence fees and other charges.

The council has individual or collective ward offices spread throughout the urban areas where councillors deal with and answer complaints from the public on a variety of matters. Although the majority of matters raised lie outside the council's jurisdiction, councillors are often able to assist and obtain redress for the public, where appropriate, from the various government departments and public bodies.