(Translation) Minutes of the 2nd Meeting of the Environment and Hygiene Committee of Sham Shui Po District Council (5th Term) Date: 3 March 2016 (Thursday) Time: 9:30 a.m. Venue: Conference Room, Sham Shui Po District Council Present Chairman Ms LAU Pui-yuk Members Mr CHAN Kwok-wai Mr CHAN Wai-ming, MH Ms CHAN Wing-yan, Joephy Mr CHENG Wing-shun, Vincent Mr CHEUNG Wing-sum, Ambrose, MH, JP Ms CHOW Wing-heng, Zoé Mr CHUM Tak-shing (Arrived at 10:45 a.m.) Mr HO Kai-ming, Kalvin (Arrived at 9:35 a.m.) Mr KONG Kwai-sang (Arrived at 9:45 a.m.) Mr LAM Ka-fai, Aaron, JP (Arrived at 9:40 a.m.) Mr LEE Tsz-king, Dominic (Arrived at 9:38 a.m.) Mr LEE Wing-man Mr LEUNG Man-kwong (Arrived at 9:40 a.m.) Ms NG Mei, Carman (Left at 11:50 a.m.) Ms NG Yuet-lan (Left at 2:00 p.m.) Mr TAM Kwok-kiu, MH, JP (Left at 10:10 a.m.) Mr WAI Woon-nam (Left at 1:20 p.m.) Mr WONG Tat-tung, Dennis, MH, JP (Arrived at 10:15 a.m.) Mr YAN Kai-wing Mr YEUNG Yuk Mr YUEN Hoi-man Co-opted Members Mr FUNG Chi-lam - 2 - Action by Ms HA Wing-ka Mr HOU Chun-kaw Mr MAK Wai-ming (Left at 12:00 noon) In Attendance Mr WAI Chun-yin, Mickey Assistant District Officer (Sham Shui Po) 2 Mr LAI Kah-kit District Environmental Hygiene Superintendent (Sham Shui Po), Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Mr LI Kam-hung, Joe Principal Estate Officer/ Kowloon West (North) (District Lands Office, Kowloon West), Lands Department Ms YIP Yuk-ying Neighbourhood Police Co-ordinator/Police Community Relations Office (Sham Shui Po District), Hong Kong Police Force Mr CHANG Yiu-wa District Engineer/Lai Chai Kok, Highways Department Mr LAM Wing-yiu Senior Environmental Protection Officer (Regional West) 5, Environmental Protection Department Mr LUK Kar-tsun Samuel Environmental Protection Officer (Waste Transfer and Development) 13, Environmental Protection Department Mr TSE Yuet-kar, Albert Senior Engineer/Sewage Treatment 2/2, Drainage Services Department Mr FUNG Shu-wan Shift Charge Engineer/Sewage Treatment 2/2, Drainage Services Department Mr LO Kam-wing Divisional Commander (Kowloon West) (Acting), Fire Services Department Mr LAM Ming-yip Station Commander, Mon Kok Fire Station, Fire Services Department Mr CHOI Wai-fung Station Commander, Lai Chi Kok Fire Station, Fire Services Department Ms YEUNG Yu-shan, Alice Senior Field Officer (Avian Influenza), Agricultural Fisheries and Conservation Department Mr WONG Koon-wang, Tony Agricultural Officer (Market Planning), Agricultural Fisheries and Conservation Department Secretary Miss CHEUNG Ching-yee, Jennifer Executive Officer (District Council) 1, Sham Shui Po District Office Absent Member Mr LEUNG Yau-fong - 3 - Action by Co-opted Member Mr MIU Hoi-ming - 4 - Action by Opening Remarks The Chairman welcomed members and representatives from government departments to the second meeting of the Environment and Hygiene Committee (“EHC”). Agenda Item 1: Confirmation of minutes of the 1st meeting held on 19 January 2016 2. The Committee confirmed the above minutes without amendment. Agenda Item 2: Matters for discussion (a) Stepping up cleansing work at hygiene black spots for the improvement of environmental hygiene (EHC Paper 5/16) 3. Mr Vincent CHENG introduced Paper 5/16. The Chairman added that she hoped the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (“FEHD”) could reply in response to the proposals of the paper. 4. Mr LAI Kah-kit replied as follows: (i) During daily patrols, FEHD identified from time to time places where hygienic conditions were relatively poor. The Department would allocate more resources to handle the issues of these locations accordingly. Regarding the comments or complaints received by the public enquiry hotline 1823 or the Environmental Hygiene Office, the Department would handle them as early as possible. Besides, it would conduct in-depth investigations into hygiene-related cases as raised by Members. (ii) After the meeting, the Department would provide the regular schedule for cleansing rear lane black spots for members’ reference. However, the actual time for cleansing would be adjusted subject to the actual environmental circumstances. (iii) During the Clean Hong Kong Campaign, the Department provided two additional water jet teams to carry out deep cleansing services, and each of them was comprised of a “small trolley”, a high-pressure water jet and three workers. The Department also provided an additional street washing vehicle to strengthen the cleansing services at hygiene black spots, such as areas where restaurants were concentrated, rear lanes, etc. - 5 - Action by (iv) As illegal dumping of construction waste mostly occurred at late night and there was a considerable distance between the locations involved and the CCTV cameras, the recorded information might not be sufficient for effective prosecutions. Installation of CCTV cameras involved privacy issues and therefore, residents in the vicinity expressed reservations about this. The Department maintained an open attitude and would gather views from the public and members in this respect. (v) Currently, there were 10 public toilets in Sham Shui Po. Cleansing services of all these toilets were provided by cleansing contractors, and in each of these male and female toilets, there was a toilet attendant responsible for providing routine cleansing services. Meanwhile, the Department would arrange mobile teams to provide deep cleansing services at all public toilets on a weekly basis, and these teams would also be dispatched to public toilets with higher usage rates (such as Apliu Street and Nam Cheong Street) or to public toilets during peak periods to strengthen cleansing services. The Department would monitor the performance of the contractors in accordance with the contract requirements. If the performance of the contractors was not satisfactory, the Department would issue verbal or written warnings, or even default notices, to them and reduce the monthly payment of service charge. (vi) Apart from strengthening cleansing services, the Department would carry out enforcement actions and raid operations. The Department would conduct three raid operations at hygiene black spots on a monthly basis. Plain clothes staff would be arranged to carry out operations so as to enhance the effectiveness of law enforcement. (vii) The Department carried out publicity and education activities from time to time, for example, by organising hygiene seminars and distributing publicity leaflets and hygiene packs. The Department also proactively participated in publicity activities held by other government departments (e.g. the Home Affairs Department and the Environmental Protection Department (“EPD”)) in order to convey the message of cleaning Hong Kong and encourage the public to keep Hong Kong clean on their own initiative. (viii) The Department proactively coordinated with EPD in the latter’s Peach Blossom Tree Recycling Campaign. It set up collection points for collecting peach blossom trees at two refuse collection points in the district while EPD - 6 - Action by arranged vehicles to collect and recycle those trees into composting materials. (ix) The Department had all along invited tenders for cleansing service contracts in accordance with the procurement requirements and procedures of the Government. The principle of outcome-based approach was adopted to formulate the contract requirements and tenders were evaluated in accordance with the marking scheme approved by the Central Tender Board of the Government. The tender with the highest overall score of technical score and price score would be accepted, and the lowest tender price was not the basis of tender evaluation. According to the past tender results, about 30% to 40% of cleansing service contracts were not awarded to the tenderers offering the lowest tender prices. (x) The Department had participated in inter-departmental joint operations against the nuisance caused by second-hand electrical appliance recycling activities. It was mainly responsible for disposing articles which obstructed its street cleansing work or handling street obstruction issues arising from unlicensed hawking activities. (xi) In the past six months, FEHD and the Police had carried out 60 joint operations at the black spots of second-hand electrical appliance recycling activities. The Department displayed 240 “Notices to Remove Obstruction”, seized some articles and instituted 11 prosecutions against obstruction activities. [Post-meeting note: The Secretariat distributed FEHD’s schedule of cleansing rear lane black spots in April (EHC Paper 21/16) to all members for reference on 22 April 2016.] 5. Mr LAM Wing-yiu responded as follows: (i) Regarding the installation of CCTV cameras, the views of EPD were similar to those of FEHD. The Department and Members had explored for suitable locations in the district for the installation of CCTV cameras. However, some locations might involve privacy issues, and the effectiveness of follow-up action was subject to whether CCTV cameras were able to capture the vehicle registration marks of offending vehicles and the appearance of offenders. It was less often that offenders in the district drove and therefore, it was more difficult to trace them. Nevertheless, the Department maintained an open attitude in this respect. - 7 - Action by (ii) The Department had all along been working with FEHD in implementing the Peach Blossom Tree Recycling Campaign. (iii) The Department had a limited number of enforcement staff and it was difficult for it to increase manpower. It had requested the central authorities to increase its manpower for the Clean Hong Kong Campaign but unfortunately in vain. Therefore, the Department had to prioritise its tasks according to the gravity of issues. For example, in response to the relatively large number of household renovations during Lunar New Year, the Department would deploy manpower and resources to handle issues relating to construction waste and even take enforcement actions during holidays and in the evenings.