(Translation) Minutes of the Fourth Meeting of the Community Affairs Committee (2020) of the Kwai Tsing District Council
Date and Time: 21 October 2020 10:00 a.m. – 1:32 p.m. 23 October 2020 10:00 a.m. – 12:32 p.m. Venue: K&T DO Conference Room
Attendee Time of Arrival Time of Departure Mr NG Kim-sing (Chairman) Start of Meeting End of Meeting Miss WONG Pit-man (Vice-chairman) 21 October 2020 End of Meeting 10:06 a.m. Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve Start of Meeting End of Meeting Mr CHOW Wai-hung, Rayman 23 October 2020 End of Meeting 10:00 a.m. Mr HON Chun-yin 21 October 2020 End of Meeting 10:17 a.m. Mr HUI Kei-cheung 21 October 2020 21 October 2020 10:04 a.m. 1:32 p.m. Miss KWOK Fu-yung 21 October 2020 21 October 2020 10:06 a.m. 1:03 p.m. Mr KWOK Tsz-kin 21 October 2020 21 October 2020 10:52 a.m. 12:42 p.m. Mr LAM Siu-fai Start of Meeting 21 October 2020 12:33 p.m. Mr LAU Chi-kit Start of Meeting End of Meeting Ms LAU Kwai-mui Start of Meeting 21 October 2020 12:33 p.m. Mr LEUNG Chi-shing 23 October 2020 23 October 2020 10:15 a.m. 11:39 a.m. Miss LEUNG Ching-shan Start of Meeting 23 October 2020 10:40 a.m. Ms LEUNG Kar-ming Start of Meeting 21 October 2020 1:03 p.m. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai Start of Meeting End of Meeting Mr LEUNG Kwok-wah Start of Meeting 23 October 2020 11:11 a.m. Mr LEUNG Wing-kuen 21 October 2020 End of Meeting 10:06 a.m. The Hon. LEUNG Yiu-chung 21 October 2020 21 October 2020 10:06 a.m. 10:48 a.m. Miss LO Yuen-ting Start of Meeting 21 October 2020 1:00 p.m. Mr SIN Ho-fai Start of Meeting End of Meeting Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren Start of Meeting End of Meeting Mr TONG Ho-man 21 October 2020 End of Meeting 10:04 a.m. Mr TSUI Hiu-kit Start of Meeting 23 October 2020 10:37 a.m. Mr WONG Bing-kuen 21 October 2020 21 October 2020 10:19 a.m. 12:31 p.m. Mr WONG Chun-tat 21 October 2020 End of Meeting 10:11 a.m. Mr WONG Yun-tat, Ivan 21 October 2020 End of Meeting 10:07 a.m.
In Attendance Ms CHAN Sheung-man Centre Manager, Parent-Child Association of Education Needs Limited Mr CHEN Wai-kuen Administrative Assistant/Lands (District Lands Office, Tsuen Wan and Kwai Tsing), Lands Department Mr CHAN Kin-kau Manager (Acting), Squatter Control/Kowloon, Tsuen Wan & Kwai Tsing Office, Lands Department Mr LAU Siu-wa Assistant Manager, Squatter Control 1/Kowloon, Tsuen Wan & Kwai Tsing Office, Lands Department Ms CHENG Yin-yin, Emily Senior Environmental Protection Officer (Regional West) 4, Environmental Protection Department Mr LIU Hon-wah, Andy Chief Executive Officer(Planning)1, Social Welfare Department Ms LAI Wai-man, Irene Senior Executive Officer(Planning)Management, Social Welfare Department Ms LUI Ka-wing Assistant District Social Welfare Officer (Tsuen Wan/ Kwai Tsing District) 3, Social Welfare Department Mr YAU Sing-yin Chief Health Inspector(Kwai Tsing)1, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Mr LO Chi-bun Chief Health Inspector(Kwai Tsing)2, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Ms CHAN Suk-fun Health Inspector(Quality Assurance)2, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Mrs KWOK WONG Mun-yi Senor School Development Officer (Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi) 3, Education Bureau Ms WONG Ka-him Senior Treasury Accountant/Customer Accounts (Acting), Water Supplies Department Ms TSE Yuk-lin Treasury Accountant/Customer Accounts, Water Supplies Department Ms KWOK Kwai-chun Senior Accounting Officer/Customer Accounts 1 (Acting), Water Supplies Department Dr LUK Wan Chief of Service of Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care, Kowloon West Cluster, Hospital Authority Ms WONG Hau-yi, Yvonne Senior Property Service Manager/Kwai Chung (Acting), Housing Department Mr WONG Ka-ho Assistant Station Commander, New Territories Regional Office, Fire Services Department Mr TSANG Kin-hang, Gary Labour Officer (Workplace Consultation Promotion), Labour Department Ms LEE Oi-wan, Wandy Deputy District Leisure Manager (District Support) Kwai Tsing, Leisure and Cultural Services Department Miss YIM Yik-huen, Bonnie Assistant District Officer (Kwai Tsing), Kwai Tsing District Office Miss HO Yin-king, Susanne Senior Liaison Officer (1), Kwai Tsing District Office Mr CHAU Ka-nin, Eric Senior Liaison Officer (3), Kwai Tsing District Office Mr CHOW Kai Sing, Liaison Officer I Kwai Chung (Central & South), Kwai Thomas Tsing District Office Miss TSE Lai-yan, Winnie Executive Officer (District Council) 3, Kwai Tsing District (Secretary) Office
Opening Remarks
The Chairman welcomed Members and representatives of government departments to the fourth meeting of the Community Affairs Committee (the Committee) (2020) of the Kwai Tsing District Council (K&T DC).
Confirmation of Minutes of the Third Meeting (2020) held on 9 June 2020
2. Mr HUI Kei-cheung moved a motion to confirm the minutes. The motion was seconded by Mr LEUNG Kwok-wah. The Committee endorsed the said minutes unanimously.
Confirmation of Minutes of the Special Meeting (Resumption of the Third Meeting) (2020) held on 30 June 2020
3. Mr HUI Kei-cheung moved a motion to confirm the minutes. The motion was seconded by Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve. The Committee endorsed the said minutes unanimously.
Confirmation of Minutes of the Special Meeting (2020) held on 3 August 2020
4. Mr HUI Kei-cheung moved a motion to confirm the minutes. The motion was seconded by Mr LEUNG Wing-kuen. The Committee endorsed the said minutes unanimously.
Introduction Paper
Purchase of Premises for the Provision of Welfare Facilities (Submitted by the Social Welfare Department) (CAC Paper No. 59/I/2020) (Revision)
5. Mr LIU Hon-wah, Andy, Chief Executive Officer (Planning) 1, Social Welfare Department (SWD), introduced the paper.
6. Mr WONG Yun-tat, Ivan put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) As people in need were required to wait for residential services for a long time, he reluctantly accepted the decision of SWD to purchase private properties as welfare services facilities.
(ii) Purchasing private properties would very possibly make others suspect that the Government and the owners were involved in transfer of benefits, and doubt whether the purchasing price was raised.
(iii) Regarding the longer waiting time for residential care homes for the elderly and the disabled, long-term planning was necessary for SWD to solve the demand for welfare services.
7. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(iv) Whether the current plan involved the acquisition of properties in public housing estates since the shops in their shopping malls had continuously been let as residential care homes.
(i) Whether SWD had capped the purchase price of the respective premises.
(ii) SWD had no plan of acquiring properties in the Kwai Tsing District to run the district support centres and day care centres for persons with disabilities, yet the waiting time for these services were relatively longer, with insufficient support provided. He hoped that SWD could add more of the mentioned facilities to support the families of persons with disabilities.
8. Mr SIN Ho-fai put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) The ownership of private properties in Tsing Yi District was mainly owned by LINK Asset Management Limited (Link) and GAW Capital Partners. The Government currently also leased properties from Link to provide welfare services, such as the maternal and child health centre in Cheung Hong Estate. Since the vacancy rate of properties of Link was relatively low, he was worried that the acquisition of properties might not address the service need if SWD acquired the properties that were distant and being inaccessible to the public.
(ii) As some of the properties were relatively old, SWD should consider whether they needed to bear the renovation cost after the acquisition.
(iii) As the support provided to persons with disabilities in Tsing Yi District was inadequate, he hoped that SWD could enhance the above services.
9. Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Whether SWD had identified and made offers to suitable premises in Kwai Tsing District, and would materialise the purchase.
(ii) Whether SWD had capped the purchase price of the respective premises. If they did, whether the price was sufficient to acquire the premises.
(iii) There were insufficient childcare services in Hong Kong. He hoped that SWD could enhance the aforementioned services for the convenience of working parents.
(iv) The exact timeline of the acquisition plan and the time when social welfare organisations could use the 158 premises set out in the plan.
10. Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve stated that the demand for childcare centre services in different districts varied. There were less school children in Kwai Tsing District now which leads to the excess of supply of relevant facilities. Meanwhile, kindergartens were facing difficulties in operation under the epidemic. Therefore, while adding more childcare service, SWD should consider the impacts of decisions exerted on kindergartens and how they could offer more support.
11. The Hon. LEUNG Yiu-chung put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) The Government did not reserve premises for welfare facilities when they implemented new town planning projects. Therefore, acquiring premises to meet the need for welfare services was unavoidable.
(ii) The criteria for acquiring premises. In identifying potential premises, whether SWD would assess the accessibilities of those premises to service users and their families. He was worried that the premises would be in remote locations and not usable for providing welfare services.
(iii) The funding should be used effectively in a targeted manner. He concerned whether the property prices would be inflated or jacked up by private owners under large-scale acquisition of SWD.
12. Mr LAU Chi-kit put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Whether the ‘planned welfare facilities at the acquired properties’ mentioned in the Appendix referred to existing or new facilities.
(ii) The current facilities were mostly located in properties owned or resold by Link. He enquired whether the property owner would obtain benefits during the process, resulting in collusion between business and the Government.
(iii) The community had a huge demand for welfare services because of aging population. In the long run, the Government should consider how to allocate more resources, such as reserving suitable places for social services facilities in public housing projects, so as to save costs.
13. Mr LAM Siu-fai put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) The aforementioned document indicated that 11 welfare facilities would be set up in Kwai Tsing District. He enquired whether that referred to existing or new facilities. SWD was also renting private properties to operate family service centres, such as the Kwai Chung (East) Integrated Family Service Centre at the Shek Lei Shopping Centre.
(ii) The Government did not set out plans for welfare facilities. Housing for senior citizens located in Shek Lei (II) Estate, but the service providers were in Shek Lei (I) Estate, making it difficult for the senior citizens to use the services. He suggested the Government should plan ahead and concentrate the welfare facilities in the same area.
(iii) Residents had an imminent need for childcare facilities.
14. Mr LEUNG Wing-kuen put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Concerned whether the purchase exercise would involve transfer of benefits.
(ii) If the acquired premises were in remote locations, they may not be suitable to be used as welfare facilities.
(iii) SWD should utilise different ways to look for suitable locations, such as reserving spaces for welfare facilities in Joint User Complexes or facilities of other departments (such as Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD)).
15. Mr LEUNG Kwok-wah put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Whether SWD had conducted public consultation when deciding the purposes of the 11 new premises in Kwai Tsing District. If no, he requested SWD to do so.
(ii) Whether SWD had confirmed the compliance of identified premises with legal requirements of related welfare facilities such as the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Ordinance before acquisition.
(iii) Whether a financial advisor had been recruited to clarify the criteria and price per square foot of the acquisition and assess the influence of decision to the nearby facilities.
16. Mr HUI Kei-cheung put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) The supply of welfare facilities was insufficient because of the ageing population. Although acquiring premises can alleviate short-term demands, SWD should consider whether the identified premises would be accessible to service users.
(ii) Whether the residents in Kwai Tsing District could have the priority to use the welfare services under the purchase exercise.
(iii) Requested SWD to submit information on the mid-to-long-run land use plan to K&T DC, including the planned number of additional welfare facilities in Kwai Tsing District.
(iv) The prime time for assessment would be easily missed because it currently took more than 30 months to be allocated to special child care centre services. He requested SWD to provide the statistics of the waiting time for the elderly community centre and special child care centre in the district.
17. Miss WONG Pit-man pointed out that there was a serious shortage of elderly service centres in Tsing Ying District. Local senior citizens needed to wait for services in Lai King and Kwai Chung because of the long waiting time of service centres close to their residence. Together with the inadequate area of day care centres for elderly, she supported the purchase exercise of SWD.
18. The Chairman pointed out that the local residents in Kwai Fong reflected that there was a serious shortage of child care services. He also suggested SWD to check if the services for persons with disabilities were sufficient.
19. Mr LIU Hon-wah, Andy gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) As mentioned in the CAC Paper No. 59/I/2020, there were several reasons constituting the constant shortage of welfare premises, including an aging population, the huge demand of community for child care services, and the new service requirements or enhancements derived by the new measures targeted at the ever-changing needs of the community. These had all led to an increasing demand for welfare facilities.
(ii) The Government had set up operating mechanisms for the purchase exercise, including:
(a) All the public officers involved in the purchase exercise had to declare benefits and were restricted by related laws and the Civil Service Code (which included avoiding conflict of interest, abiding to the rules of confidentiality and not disclosing information).
(b) The Government had set up a steering committee and two sub- committees which provided opinions and suggestions according to their respective terms of reference. The steering committee would make collective decisions on each purchase of premises. SWD had also consulted the Independent Commission Against Corruption regarding the operating mechanism and the checks and balances procedure to ensure that the purchase exercise was implemented in a fair and just manner.
(c) The sub-committee consisted of professional surveyors of different grades from the Government Property Agency (GPA) would refer to the established mechanism to decide the highest acceptable price of a suitable premise. The price of the acquired property must not exceed the highest acceptable price so that the property price was reasonable and agrees with the market value. Therefore, if the owner charged more than the highest acceptable price, the Government would not purchase the property.
(iii) Regarding the purposes of the acquired premises:
(a) Four additional facilities would be designated for two subsidised independent child care centres, an elderly day care centre and a special child care centre.
(b) To find suitable premises for four neighbourhood elderly centres of which the size were below standard.
(c) Parents/resources centre, cyber youth support teams and on-site pre- school rehabilitation services currently rented properties as their temporary sites or temporarily used ancillary units of other service operators. The purchase exercise would acquire suitable premises for them to use as permanent sites.
(iv) Regarding the identification of location, SWD had provided requirements including the location, type of property, quantity, floor area, operation, technical details and commencement date to GPA. GPA would then search for suitable premises through different means. When choosing the location, SWD would require and ensure that the acquired properties were situated in the service areas of the relevant welfare services for the convenience of users. Also, considering the need for renovation after acquiring the properties, SWD would avoid choosing old or poorly maintained properties at their best.
(v) On whether SWD would purchase properties from Link, as far as understood, when Link sold retail properties divested from the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA), they were restricted by the relevant assignment deeds which prohibited them from devising a shop. Therefore, the chance of acquiring properties from Link was low.
(vi) On whether SWD had successfully acquired premises in Kwai Tsing District, the department had conducted an initial assessment through GPA to check if there were suitable premises.
(vii) Care homes required a larger space. The technical and arrangement requirements were also stricter. Therefore, the current acquisition plan mainly covered day care services. SWD would utilise mid-and-long-term strategies using a multi-pronged approach to incorporate care homes as purpose-built premise into different kinds of development projects, including “Government, Institution or Community” sites, public estate projects, private land development projects, urban renewal projects, official land sale programs and “Special Scheme on Privately Owned Sites for Welfare Uses”.
(viii) SWD and other departments had been looking into the availability of suitable sites under the prevailing mechanism in order to address the imminent need for welfare facilities. These facilities had also been included in the development projects of LCSD.
(ix) SWD noted the imminent need for child care services and elderly day care centres. Apart from the purchase exercise, SWD would continue to adopt a multi-pronged approach to find suitable welfare facilities in different kinds of development projects. For example, SWD had planned to set up an elderly day care centre in the public housing scheme in Tsing Hung Road North.
(x) The welfare facilities of the same category in each district must comply with the same standard, including the floor area etc.
(xi) Regarding the impacts of this acquisition plan on kindergarten operators, SWD would relay the views to the Education Bureau (EDB).
20. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Whether the purchase exercise would provide services like day care centres for persons with disabilities.
(ii) Regarding the highest acceptable price in each district, he requested SWD to submit relevant documents to K&T DC to facilitate understanding of members the current mechanism, so as to determine whether the price was reasonable.
(iii) Regarding the public housing properties sold by HA to Link or resold to other developers, he concerned whether renting these properties would affect the residents and enquired the renting criteria.
21. Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) If the owner refused to sell the property at market price and only accepted a bargain based on an increase of 5% to 10% of the estimated value, SWD may not be able to acquire the relevant premises.
(ii) The current plan had not included centre for mental wellness into the list of acquisition. It was challenging to search for suitable premises for the aforementioned facility because setting up such centres would receive oppositions from the neighbourhood. To tackle the issue, he suggested SWD to reserve places as centre for mental wellness through the above purchase exercise or during the construction of public housing estates, so as to reduce the resistance from the community.
(iii) There were similar welfare facilities in Kwai Tsing District. He requested SWD to provide statistics of those facilities to facilitate the understanding of members on whether the purchase exercise could meet the service need.
22. Mr LAM Siu-fai put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) SWD planned to purchase 11 premises, yet there would be different obstacles during negotiation, including the resistance from the neighbourhood. He asked whether the department had a back-up plan.
(ii) Suggested the Government to redevelop old markets into complexes to provide welfare facilities.
23. Mr LEUNG Kwok-wah enquired whether SWD would consult the stakeholders after deciding the purposes of the acquired premises for controversial projects.
24. Mr WONG Bing-kuen put forth opinion as follows:
(i) Support the purchase exercise of SWD in principle but concerned whether the owners would raise the property prices.
(ii) The estimated purchase price of each property in Kwai Tsing District was 100 million. He could not determine whether the price was reasonable because the information about the premises in the purchase exercise, including the floor area, location and scale, was unavailable.
(iii) The above paper suggested that the first batch of purchase exercise would commence earliest in the first quarter of 2020 while the last batch would be purchased in 2023. The facilities would start operating within 5 years. During the purchase exercise, he hoped that SWD can submit more information to K&T DC as a reference to facilitate them to bring forth opinions.
25. Mr HUI Kei-cheung put forth opinion as follows:
(i) Support the purchase exercise of SWD in general as a short-term measure to acquire premises to help the underprivileged in need. He enquired whether the department could provide statistics to show that the waiting time would be shortened after the acquisition, so as to prove the proper use of public money.
(ii) Whether the priority to use the welfare services provided by the acquired premises would be given to residents in Kwai Tsing District, especially the special child care centre and elderly day care centre.
26. Mr LIU Hon Wah, Andy gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) The current purchase exercise included an elderly cay dare centre.
(ii) Regarding the method to avoid the owners from raising the property prices, GPA would utilise different ways to search for properties in order to increase the number of available choices, such as through the property information provided by the owners or the real estate agents, direct contact with the owners, identification of suitable properties from the property advertisements published on the newspaper or by developers/owners and agents, conducting field visits to the target area etc. GPA would also seek sellable properties from owners through its website publicly. Additionally, the Government would not purchase any property exceeding the capped price in order to ensure that the price was reasonable and agreed with the market value.
(iii) Regarding the location of the centre for mental wellness, there were 24 integrated community centres for mental wellness in Hong Kong in total, in which 17 of them were providing services at a permanent venue and 5 of them had already sought a permanent location. Suitable premises had been reserved for the remaining 2 centres in newly developed and redeveloped projects.
(iv) On whether the public would be consulted before acquiring the premises, SWD had promised to report the process of acquisition to the panel on Welfare Services under Legislative Council in order to enhance the transparency of the purchase exercise.
(v) Regarding the arrangement in case of a failure to acquire premises and the concern about initial location choices, SWD had not finalised the initial preferences. The department had considered the primary assessment on the available premises in each district conducted by GPA when deciding welfare facilities to be set up in respective places. The number of acquisition and welfare facilities provided each year were mainly determined by the market and depended on various factors, such as whether there were suitable and reasonably priced premises in the market. The department would purchase more premises to offer more welfare facilities where appropriate.
27. Ms LUI Ka-wing, Assistant District Social Welfare Officer (Tsuen Wan and Kwai Tsing) 3 of SWD gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) Regarding the enquiries of Mr HUI Kei-cheung:
(a) As of 31 August 2020, the waitlist for special child care centres in Kwai Tsing District consisted of 166 candidates. The current purchase exercise included a special child care centre offering around 60 places. Also, SWD would establish a special child care centres in the public housing development schemes at Ching Fu Court in Tsing Hung Road and Tai Wo Hau, which were going through legal procedures.
(b) As of 30 September 2020, the waitlist for elderly cay care centres consisted of around 4,000 candidates, with a waiting time of around 14 months.
(c) Whether Kwai Tsing residents would be prioritised would depend on the nature of the service. For example, neighbourhood elderly centres aimed at providing services for nearby senior citizens and their carers while the current elderly day care centre in Kwai Tsing District served the local community. For special child care centres, while they were allocated by the central referral system for rehabilitation services, parents usually preferred nearby centres.
(ii) Regarding the development of complexes mentioned by Mr LAM Siu-fai, apart from purchase exercise, SWD was simultaneously utilising other methods to increase welfare facilities, including public and private housing schemes or vacant premises.
28. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) The purchase exercise did not include services for persons with severe disabilities, such as services for mentally handicapped persons, day activity centre, district support centre for persons with disabilities or care and attention home and day respite service for severely disabled persons. He suggested the department to provide these services.
(ii) Requested SWD to submit more reference materials to K&T DC, including the criteria for determining the price per square foot and report the progress to the K&T DC in the future.
29. Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren requested SWD to provide statistics of the waiting time for welfare facilities and report the progress to K&T DC regularly.
30. Mr LIU Hon-wah, Andy responded that regarding the details about the highest acceptable price, GPA had been following an existing mechanism. SWD would consult GPA and reply after the meeting.
31. Ms LUI Ka-wing responded that there were two district centres for persons with disabilities in Kwai Tsing District. Evangelical Lutheran Church Kwai Chung District Support Centre was the service provider in Kwai Chung while Hong Kong Caritas Joyous Link District Support Centre was the service provider in Tsing Yi. Both centres situated in permanent premises. SWD noted the request of members to enhance rehabilitation services.
32. Mr HUI Kei-cheung asked SWD to provide statistics on the waiting lists for the welfare facilities in Kwai Tsing District as a reference to the Committee after the meeting.
33. The Chairman asked SWD to provide a response in writing to the enquiry of members after the meeting.
Discussion Items
Follow-up on the Noise Problem at the Tsing Yi Market at Night (Proposed by Miss WONG Pit-man) (CAC Paper Nos. 60, 60a, 60b/D/2020)
34. Miss WONG Pit-man introduced the paper.
35. Mr LO Chi-bun, Chief Health Inspector (Kwai Tsing)2, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) gave a supplementary reply as follows:
(i) FEHD immediately contacted the Architectural Services Department (ASD) after receiving the suggestion in June in order to study whether the door between the market and discharge area could be locked. Having discovered that it was feasible after conducting research and on-site investigation, ASD would install locks and repair the door.
(ii) FEHD remained open to the suggestion of opening the discharge area in early hours. The department would work with hawkers to open the discharge area to unload goods as a trial after the completion of the door repair work.
(iii) To avoid the noise from discharging from disturbing nearby residents, FEHD advised hawkers to start discharging at the official opening hours of the market (i.e. 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.).
36. Mr SIN Ho-fai put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Whether FEHD had preliminary suggestions on opening the discharge area earlier.
(ii) Regarding the complaints about the noise in the area of Tsing Yi Market, Hong Kong Police Force responded that no such complaints had been received. Yet the residents in Tivoli Garden, which were 200 metres apart, had repeatedly complained about the issue to him. He asked FEHD the number of complaints received in total and the reason why the problem had not been dealt with.
37. Miss WONG Pit-man put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Opening the discharge area in early hours could effectively block the noise.
(ii) It was unavoidable for hawkers to discharge good in early hours. She asked whether FEHD had other solutions.
(iii) Although the police claimed that no complaints had been received, she had reported the issue to them for several times and thought that the police could not handle the noise issue of the Tsing Yi Market.
38. Mr LO Chi-bun made a consolidated response as follows:
(i) FEHD would decide the opening time of the market after discussion with hawkers.
(ii) FEHD would supplement statistics of relevant complaints after the meeting.
(iii) FEHD would test the effectiveness of opening the discharge area in early hours. If efforts were not remarkably effective, the department would evaluate with related individuals and implement suitable measures afterwards to reduce the nuisance to residents.
39. The Chairman requested FEHD to evaluate the relevant arrangements so as to reduce the noise nuisance to the residents.
The Overcharging of Water Bills by the Water Supplies Department During the Epidemic (Proposed by Mr LAU Chi-kit and Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren) (CAC Paper Nos. 61, 61a /D/2020)
40. Mr LAU Chi-kit briefly introduced the paper and enquired whether the Water Supplies Department (WSD) would suspend routine meter reading if a second wave occurred in November and if so, the measures to prevent overcharging water tariff.
41. Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren supplemented the paper as follows:
(i) He received many complaints from residents regarding water tariff and thus enquired the reasons for overcharging.
(ii) The percentage increase of the number of enquiries about abnormal cases that WSD had received in the past 2 to 3 months compared with previous record.
(iii) According to the reply of WSD, billing system will calculate the water consumption and water charges in the relevant billing periods based on meter readings estimated according to a set of criteria for the issue of water bills. In his opinion, the above calculation was problematic because the water bills were computed on a progressive basis. Therefore, he enquired the adjustment mechanism during the combination process and how the department could ensure that the combined cycle would not be calculated as second tier in the progressive system which would lead to a more expensive water tariff.
42. Ms WONG Ka-him, Senior Treasury Accountant/Customer Accounts (Acting) of WSD briefly introduced the reply and gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) According to the current billing system, domestic users were usually billed for their water charges at 4-monthly intervals under a progressive tariff structure, in which 4 months should be understood as 121.64 days. Within that four months, the first 12 cubic metres were free of charge, the next 31 cubic metres was charged at $4.16 per cubic metre, then the next 19 cubic metres was charged at $6.45 per cubic metre, the remaining was charged at $9.05 per cubic metre. Under the current charging system, WSD would always adjust the water consumption of each tier based on the actual number of days of water consumption within the billing period. If WSD could not take meter readings four months after the previous session or need to postpone the reading, the department would refer to the actual number of days to adjust the water consumption of each tier of the user proportionally, meaning that if the actual number of days exceeded 121.64 days, more than 12 cubic metres would be free of charge. After combining two billing periods or two bills, the total period concerned would be extended to 8 months, therefore the water consumption for the first tier would be adjusted proportionally to 24 cubic metres. Since the consumption for each tier would be adjusted according to the actual number of days, extending the billing period covered by the bill would not lead to an extra increase in water bills.
(ii) Under the current adjustment mechanism, WSD would refer to the meter reading before suspension and the latest actual reading, which was the user’s actual water consumption, to calculate the water consumption and bill that the user should pay without involving the estimated water consumption.
(iii) Regarding the enquiry of Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren, for some of the cases handled by WSD, the water consumption of users increased compared with the past after an adjustment based on the actual meter reading, which may occur because of a change in the consumption habit due to the pandemic. In addition, the department had received around 30,000 water charges enquiries of different kinds from January to September that year, including leaks on the internal supply system and defective water meters.
43. The Chairman pointed out that the calculation method of WSD would not cause an increase in water bills.
44. Ms WONG Ka-him further explained that WSD suspended routine meter reading under the pandemic. For accounts with billing periods ending during the suspension period, the department used their previous record as the basis of estimation to calculate the water consumption and the water charges of the user in the relevant billing period and issue the bill. The pandemic may cause a change in the water consumption habit of the consumers, causing WSD to underestimate the water consumption of some consumers in the last period, which resulted in a larger difference between the previous and the new water bills. Yet after making adjustments based on the actual meter readings of the account, the water bill would not increase because of the involvement of the estimated water consumption.
45. Ms LEUNG Kar-ming pointed out that she had received a complaint from a citizen about being absent at home for a long time but still charged for a water bill of $20,000. She was dissatisfied with WSD handling of the complaint and perceived that the staff had attempted to blame the consumer for his mistake for causing the increase in water bills.
46. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai put forth that WSD suspended routine meter reading for three times from 29 January to 1 March, 23 March to 3 May and 20 July to 30 August. The department estimated the water bills in the first and the second time but adjusted the charges after receiving complaints and enquiries from the public. He enquired whether the department would adjust the water bills of all the consumers in Hong Kong and uniformly calculate the bills based on the reading before the suspension and the latest actual reading.
47. Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren put forth enquiries as follows:
(i) Although WSD replied that the current mechanism would not cause an increase in water bills, the rise in enquiries reflected that there was a problem. He asked whether the department had established a committee to understand the reason behind the increase in water bills.
(ii) How the public could handle bills suspected to have been over-charged.
48. Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve pointed out that if the current mechanism had not over-charged water bills, why some citizens would receive deductions of the extra amount paid in the new bills and how many households were affected.
49. Miss LEUNG Ching-shan pointed out that WSD should announce the suspension of routine meter reading as soon as possible to allow the public to record the readings of the month by themselves.
50. Mr LAU Chi-kit put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) WSD calculated the water bills based on estimated meter readings in the earlier stage. Therefore, water would be charged using a three-tier progressive structure, meaning that the public would pay extra water tariff.
(ii) He enquired whether WSD would suspend routine meter reading if fourth wave occurred in Hong Kong and how the department would calculate the water tariff by then to avoid inaccuracy.
51. Mr HON Chun-yin put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) He had received opinions from a considerable number of citizens that their water tariff increased exponentially. In view of the possibility of a fourth wave, he enquired WSD whether they would suspend the routine meter reading again and how the department would calculate the water tariff by then.
(ii) The increase in water tariff may be caused by multiple reasons, including an ability to arrange for a repair of waterworks in time. He hoped WSD could investigate the reason for the increase.
52. Mr LAM Siu-fai put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Suggested WSD to attach a note with bills of next period explaining how the department calculated water bills during the pandemic to facilitate citizens to calculate the amount themselves.
(ii) Whether WSD could remit the installation cost as the public suspected that the water meters were defective because of an increase in the water tariff during the pandemic and asked for a reinstallation from WSD.
53. Mr LEUNG Kwok-wah put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) In his opinion, since the water tariff was calculated based on a four-tier progressive system, the estimation of WSD would be inaccurate. He suspected that an administrative error had occurred. With the current economic recession, he suggested the department to waive some of the water tariff.
(ii) WSD could consider taking meter readings electronically, such as sending readings through Wi-Fi and applying it the detection of leaks on mains.
(iii) Frequent mains burst accidents forced the public to use drinking water to flush, increasing their water consumption.
54. Mr WONG Bing-kuen put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Since WSD underestimated the water tariff during the pandemic, lots of complaints had been received. The department stated that around 30,000 enquiries about water tariff had been received. He asked the number of consumers requesting for a refund and the amount involved.
(ii) Suspending a single reading would likely progress the bills to tier four because the readings were taken at 4-monthly intervals. Although the difference was insignificant, he refused to accept suspension of meter reading services of WSD because of the pandemic.
(iii) The number of cases with outdoor meters which led to the ability of meter readers to conduct their work. In his opinion, meter reading did not involve crowd gathering, therefore WSD should evaluate the arrangement during the pandemic.
55. Mr HUI Kei-cheung put forth opinions as follows:
(i) All the water meters in the public estates in Kwai Tsing District had been installed in the corridors instead of the units. He asked whether the overcharging had involved human and administrative errors, giving rise to a huge difference between the estimation and the actual bill.
(ii) The water bills rose because of the fact that the public stayed at home to combat the pandemic and frequent mains burst accidents in the district in July. He suggested WSD to offer one-off subsidies to the public like the electricity and rates subsidies.
56. The Chairman put forth opinions as follows:
(i) If WSD had not charged any water bills during the pandemic, cases of excessive water charges would not had occurred. However, if the department had charged consumers during the pandemic, the water consumption may have risen to tier four.
(ii) Some DC members reflected that some consumers had received unreasonably high water tariff, WSD should re-evaluate the calculation method to avoid overcharging.
57. Ms WONG Ka-him gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) WSD suspended routine meter reading for three times because of the pandemic. During the first two suspension periods, the billing system referred to the previous consumption to estimate the meter reading in order to calculate the water consumption and water charges of the relevant billing period and issue the bills. In view of the third wave in July, the department had modified the billing system and would temporarily stop issuing water bills to consumers. Due to a recent improvement in the situation, WSD had resumed routine meter reading and would cancel the previous bills based on an estimation of water consumption and water tariff. Instead, the department would combine the previous reading and the latest actual reading to calculate the actual water consumption in the billing period to issue a new bill. If the water consumption habit of consumers had not changed, the water tariff would not have increased exponentially because of an estimation of the meter reading.
(ii) The meter readers were required to visit different places to take readings. WSD had decided to suspend the meter reading to reduce the risk of transmission and in consideration of the health risk posed to the readers.
(iii) Regarding handling of water tariff during the fourth wave, WSD would keep close attention to the latest development and consider whether arranging meter readers to continue their work in less risky places so as to reduce the impacts on the community.
(iv) Water tariff were issued at 4-monthly intervals because taking meter readings was time consuming, as there were around 3 million water meters in Hong Kong.
(v) WSD was implementing the Automatic Meter Reading System as a pilot scheme.
(vi) If the water tariff of that period were calculated based on estimation, the tariff would indicate that as an estimated bill. Citizens could directly enquire WSD in case of any enquiries. The department would adopt the aforementioned method to uniformly cancel all the bills issued during the period when meter reading services were suspended and estimated meter readings were used. They would refer to the actual reading to calculate the water consumption and water tariff combining the related billing periods and indicate the adjustment on the bill.
(vii) Regarding the enquiry of Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren, after WSD received an enquiry from consumer, if the consumer had not cleared the related bills, the department would freeze the account temporarily. Nevertheless, to avoid an accumulation of water tariff, she advised the consumers to pay a certain amount first.
(viii) Regarding the enquiry of Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve, WSD had no statistics of the number of consumers with excessive water tariff. In case of discovering excessive amount paid after the adjustment, the money would be transferred to the account to cover future bills. The consumer could also contact WSD to request for a reimbursement.
(ix) Regarding the opinions of Miss LEUNG Ching-shan, after the Government announced the work from home arrangements of civil servants, WSD also published a press release about the suspension of routine meter reading. However, special meter readings were still conducted, including taking readings to follow up on abnormal increase in water consumption and handle the change of consumership.
(x) Regarding the current adjustment on water tariff calculation, members of K&T DC could refer to the press release of WSD on 7 September, frequently asked question and examples about the details on website of the department.
58. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai pointed out that WSD had successively suspended meter reading for three times, in which water charges were calculated based on estimation during the first two suspensions. He asked whether the department would adjust the tariff of consumers who did not complain.
59. Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren pointed out that WSD replied that the current calculation method would not lead to an increase in water tariff, yet he had received quite a number of enquiries from the public. He requested the department to conduct an investigation.
60. Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve pointed out that singleton elderly had never paid water tariff and enquired how they could apply for reimbursement.
61. Mr LEUNG Kwok-wah pointed out that residents had to use drinking water to flush because of the frequent mains burst accidents in the Kwai Chung North East Area, leading to a surge in water consumption. In his opinion, the burst was due to inability of WSD to replace water mains and an excessive high water pressure, thus he asked whether the department had set up an appeal mechanism.
62. Mr WONG Bing-kuen put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) The surge in water charges was because of the estimation method adopted by WSD to calculate the tariff. He agreed the suspension of meter reading to avoid spreading the virus, yet the department had neglected staying home to combat the disease as a factor for an increase in water consumption.
(ii) Agreed with the approach of WSD to calculate water tariff combining the meter reading before the suspension and the latest actual reading, yet enquired whether the department would adjust charges of all consumers and reimburse the extra amount paid
(iii) Whether WSD would waive 50% of the water tariff in the coming year because the time when the pandemic would end remained a mystery. He also admitted that underestimating the water consumption had led to the mistake of charging excessively.
63. Ms LEUNG Kar-ming suggested that WSD should charge the citizens after clarifying the calculation method.
64. The Chairman pointed out that it was abnormal for the domestic water consumption to be 70 times more than normal. WSD should investigate whether there were leaks on mains.
65. Ms WONG Ka-him gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) Regarding the enquiries of Mr LEUNG Kam-wai and Mr WONG Bing-kuen, WSD would proactively inspect all the affected accounts after adjusting the billing system, uniformly cancel all the bills calculated based on an estimated meter reading and utilise the actual reading to jointly calculate the water consumption and charge of the relevant billing cycle so as to make proper adjustment. The calculation concerned would be displayed on the bills for the new period.
(ii) Regarding the enquiry of Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren, the relevant department in WSD was responsible for monitoring the water consumption in the Hong Kong, yet it was not possible to provide relevant information in the meeting.
(iii) Regarding the enquiry of Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve, citizens could apply for reimbursement from WSD by telephone, fax, in writing or referral of district council members. The relevant amount would be reimbursed to the registered consumers through cheque.
(iv) Regarding the enquiry of Mr LEUNG Kwok-wah, she would reflect the opinion of setting up a water tariff appeal mechanism for consumers who used more fresh water because of salt water mains burst to colleagues in charge.
(v) Regarding the suggestions of Mr WONG Bing-kuen and Ms LEUNG Kar- ming, WSD currently provided waivers of water tariff for non-domestic consumers, yet the measure had not covered domestic consumers. She would reflect the suggestion of including domestic purposes to colleagues in charge.
(vi) Regarding the opinion of the Chairman, under the current billing system, WSD would also concern about cases with sudden surge in water consumption. The department would need to send staff to conduct field visits to know the reason, including whether leak on mains was involved.
(vii) Regarding the enquiry of Mr HUI Kei-cheung, the replacement fee of water meters was charged with regards to the Waterworks Regulations. Waiving required thorough consideration and consultation. The unique situation of individual cases was left to the discretion of WSD.
66. Mr WONG Bing-kuen put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Hoped WSD could reduce 50% of the water charges in each period.
(ii) Suggested WSD to make the adjustment mechanism and the cost involved public.
To Increase Evening Services of the General Out-patient Clinics in Tsing Yi (Proposed by Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren and Mr SIN Ho-fai) (CAC Paper Nos. 62, 62a/D/2020)
67. Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren briefly introduced the paper, and pointed out that the residents in the central and north part of Tsing Yi needed evening out-patient services. He asked whether the Hospital Authority would add evening services in Tsing Yi Town General Out-patient Clinic (Tsing Yi Clinic) or move the evening services of Tsing Yi Cheung Hong General Out-patient Clinic (Cheung Hong Clinic) to Tsing Yi Clinic after Cheung Hong Clinic resumed services.
68. Dr LUK Wan, Chief of Service of Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care, Kowloon West Cluster, Hospital Authority gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) Since Cheung Hong Clinic was under internal renovation, its services temporarily moved to Tsing Yi Clinic starting from 2 March. With the renovation running smoothly within the schedule, Cheung Hong Clinic was expected to resume services in March 2020, the Committee members would be notified about the exact date by then.
(ii) Reading the enquiry of Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren:
(a) Two out-patient clinics provided evening services in Kwai Tsing District, including Cheung Hong Clinic and North Kwai Chung General Out-patient Clinic (North Kwai Chung Clinic). The Hospital Authority recognised the demand of residents in Kwai Tsing for evening services, yet adding such services required consideration of a number of factors, including overall demand for local services, demographic changes of the district, whether other primary care service providers were present in the same district etc.
(b) The Hospital Authority had no plan of moving evening outpatient services of Cheung Hong Clinic to Tsing Yi Clinic at that moment. After completing the renovation of Cheung Hong Clinic, the evening services would resume at the original location. While HA understood the need of residents, the department would reflect the opinions of K&T DC members and the public to HA and hoped to see that more human resources could be allocated to the Kowloon West Cluster through the mechanism of the Hospital Authority Annual Plan (annual meeting) to enhance the service capacity of general out-patient services in Kwai Tsing District.
69. Mr SIN Ho-fai put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Understood that resources were insufficient. However, in view of the constant population growth and the annual increase in the number of doctors, the Hospital Authority should make plans as soon as possible.
(ii) Suggested the Hospital Authority to provide additional evening out-patient services in Tsing Yi Clinic to cope with the demand of residents in the central and north part of Tsing Yi and Tsing Yi. the Hospital Authority could consider implementing a pilot scheme in Tsing Yi Clinic providing a day of evening services weekly in order to satisfy the healthcare demand of the residents on the community level. With the demand for Accident & Emergency (A&E) relieved, resources could be used more efficiently.
70. Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) An ideal advanced healthcare system should be divided into a three-tier structure instead of relying on A&E to provide diagnosis.
(ii) Whether the number of doctors and quota tags had risen with increase in attendance rooms in Tsing Yi Clinic.
(iii) Despite the natural wastage of senior doctors, in view of the rise in the number of doctors, whether the Hospital Authority had planned to set up an evening general out-patient clinic in Tsing Yi and Kwai Chung respectively to relieve the burden on the healthcare system.
(iv) Since doctors were reluctant to work overtime, whether the Hospital Authority could change a day of day outpatient services to evening services for the convenience of salary earners and citizens in need of medical services at night. Trials schemes had been conducted in some areas to test the feasibility.
71. Miss LEUNG Ching-shan put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) When the Hospital Authority would evaluate demographic changes to consider whether the authority could provide additional evening outpatient services. She requested the Hospital Authority to provide relevant statistics for the reference of K&T DC.
(ii) There was only one clinic provided evening outpatient services in Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi respectively. If residents in Kwai Shing, Kwai Fong and Kwai Chung needed evening outpatient services, they had to head to North Kwai Chung Clinic. It was quite inconvenient.
72. Mr LEUNG Kwok-wah pointed out that it was insufficient for North Kwai Chung Clinic to provide evening outpatient services only on Wednesday and Thursday night, and in turn this would intensify the burden on the A&E of Princess Margaret Hospital. Therefore, he suggested the Hospital Authority adding resources to cope with the demand of public by adding the days of evening services.
73. Miss WONG Pit-man hoped that the Hospital Authority could provide the statistics of evening attendance at Tsing Yi Clinic from November 2020 to March 2020 to facilitate an understanding of the demand of residents in Tsing Yi North to decide the necessity of additional night services later.
74. Dr LUK Wan gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) Regarding services offered by the Hospital Authority, apart from general out- patient clinics, the authority also provided hospitalisation, specialised out- patient clinics, A&E and rehabilitation services. Developing new service sectors or adding regular services may need additional labour. Around 6,000 doctors worked for the Hospital Authority. Based on the annual wastage rate of around 5% to 6%, around 300 to 400 vacancies arose annually. Medical graduates from the two universities were the main sources of supply. Under a shortage of manpower, the Hospital Authority decided the priority of adding staff members with regards to the urgency of services needed by each department to allocate different interns to relevant departments for training and providing services.
(ii) Regarding the opinions and enquiries of Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren:
(a) Agreed with the three-tier system he mentioned and acknowledged that the public had a huge demand for A&E services and hospitalisation, yet the Hospital Authority ought to consider issues like manpower allocation, he would continue to reflect to the headquarter the demand of the public for general out-patient services.
(b) Understood demand of salary earners for evening out-patient services, yet the effects on service users and the cost-effectiveness ought to be considered before changing the service hours. With an aging society, the dominant service users of general out-patient services were senior citizens who were accustomed to using such services during daytime. Changing the service hours would also require additional manpower.
(iii) To address the problem of shortage of doctors and heavy workload, especially during the pandemic, the Hospital Authority had implemented a series of measures to recruit additional manpower, including Special Honorarium Scheme (SHS), to encourage doctors to work overtime and actively recruit part-time doctors at the same time to maintain the services. Moreover, the authority had referred chronic patients with stabilized conditions to private doctors through the General Outpatient Clinic Public Private Partnership Programme to further boost the capacity of general out-patient clinics. Still, he hoped K&T DC members could understand that due to the shortage of manpower, it was rather challenging to increase quota tags.
(iv) Agreed with Miss WONG Pit-man’s opinion, the Hospital Authority would record the numbers and provide additional evening services where manpower resources permit.
(v) Regarding the enquiry of Mr SIN Ho-fai, the number of consultation rooms was determined by the number of doctors, which was primarily influenced by wastage rate of doctors and their willingness to work overtime. Three consultation rooms were available in Tsing Yi Clinic before renovation. After the renovation, the Hospital Authority had already recruited more doctors through different means, including encouraging overtime work and hiring part- time doctors to maintain the availability of 3 to 4 consultation rooms.
75. Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Whether the additional services at Tsing Yi Clinic were provided through recruiting more manpower or asking doctors to work overtime.
(ii) The Hospital Authority recruited 1% to 2% of the manpower annually but the vacancies due to wastage had yet to be filled. Whether the authority had sufficient resources to invite private doctors to provide additional general and evening out-patient services through SHS.
(iii) The Government had subsidised senior citizens to consult private doctors through vouchers. With insufficient resources, whether the Government should consider helping those unsubsidised, meaning the salary earners and the grassroots, instead of relying on A&E to provide services for them.
76. Mr LEUNG Wing-kuen put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Insufficient resources had led to insufficient day and evening out-patient services. He suggested the Hospital Authority asking for additional resources from the Government to provide more of those services.
(ii) In his opinion, recruiting part-time medical staff to increase manpower was feasible.
77. Dr LUK Wan gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) Regarding the enquiry of Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren, three consultation rooms were available in Tsing Yi Clinic before renovation. The number of rooms was maintained at 3 to 4 after the renovation. The number of consultation rooms was determined by the number of doctors. Although the Hospital Authority had already recruited more doctors through different means, including hiring private doctors as part-time doctors and offering SHS, the huge demand of the public had not been satisfied.
(ii) Regarding the enquiry of Mr LEUNG Wing-kuen, the Hospital Authority had proactively recruited overseas doctors, yet the number was limited and the demand had not been completely met. As a result, the authority attempted to reduce the wastage rate through different mechanisms including an adjustment of workload of doctors. He would reflect the demand of residents in North Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi for evening out-patient services in annual meeting. Priority would be given to the provision of relevant services where resources permit.
78. The Chairman announced a rescheduling of the agenda. The Committee would first handle issues in the working group reports.
Request for Discussion on the Forced Eviction of Squatter Occupants in Kau Wa Keng San Tsuen (Proposed by Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve) (CAC Paper No. 63, 63a, 63b, 63c, 63d, 63e, 63f/D/2020)
Issues Concerning the Application Process for Setting Up Bazaars and How Different Departments Work to This End (Proposed by Mr NG Kim-sing) (CAC Paper No. 64, 64a, 64b, 64c, 64d, 64e, 64f, 64g, 64h, 64i, 64j/D/2020)
Motion: the Kwai Tsing District Council Requests for an Increase of Residential Service for Persons with Disabilities in the District (Proposed by Mr LEUNG Kam-wai, seconded by Mr SIN Ho-fai) (CAC Paper No. 65, 65a/D/2020)
Report Items
Working Group on Safeguarding Against Novel Coronavirus (Non-Standing Working Group) (CAC Paper No. 66/R/2020)
79. Members unanimously endorsed the above report.
Working Group on Health and Occupational Safety in the Community (CAC Paper No. 67/R/2020)
80. The Chairman pointed out that the first application was made by Big Silver Community for a funding of $300,000 to organise age-friendly cities activities.
81. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai put forth opinions as follows:
(i) The organisation provided a back-up plan in case of pandemic, stating that they would organise activities through video conferencing yet the budget had not included relevant expenses.
(ii) Whether the organisation would need to change the budget because the first activity would be held in November 2020 while Vetting Committee (VC) would vet the application on 28 October.
82. Miss WONG Pit-man responded that she would remind the organisation whether they would need to change the budget for the back-up plan.
83. The Committee unanimously passed the funding application.
84. The Chairman pointed out that the second application was made by the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims for a funding of $270,000 to organise health in the workplace activities.
85. The Committee unanimously passed the funding application
86. The Chairman pointed out that the third application was made by the Parent Child Association of Education Needs for a funding of $220,000 to organise Promotion of Disease Prevention and Health activities.
87. Miss WONG Pit-man enquired whether the organisation could include Tsing Yi as a location to organise activities.
88. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai pointed out that according to the "Guidelines on the Use of Kwai Tsing District Council Funds"(Guide), members-in-charge of the project was not the person-in-charge of the event. Therefore, asking the Chairman to answer enquiries of Committee members was inappropriate.
89. The Chairman pointed out that the Committee could invite the organisations to attend the meeting to answer enquires of members next time when handling funding applications.
90. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai put forth enquiries as follows:
(i) 1 200 souvenirs would be equally distributed to participants and respondents. He asked whether the organisation would submit a report to K&T DC on the interview results.
(ii) The purpose of setting up street counters.
(iii) The organisation had planned to spend the central administration fee on shooting online teaching videos for participants who were unable to attend to review the materials. He asked why the organisation would need to continue shooting the videos in case of cancellation due to the pandemic.
91. Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren responded that to ensure that the fund was used in the right place, he enquired whether the organisation had set out any back-up plans to cope with the pandemic.
92. Mr LEUNG Wing-kuen put forth opinions as follows:
(i) The organisation could adjust the activity and the location based on opinions of K&T DC.
(ii) Suggested the Committee to endorse the application first because of the limited preparation time. If the funding could not be endorsed on that day, he suggested the Committee to cancel the financial budget of the activity.
93. Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren pointed out that VC required the organisation to submit a back-up plan regarding the pandemic when applying for local organisation funding. Therefore, there should be fair treatment and enquired whether it was possible to review the application after the submission of such a plan.
94. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai put forth opinions as follows:
(i) The Committee members had mentioned the need to consider the pandemic situation when organising gathering activities during VC meetings and the Planning and District Facilities Management Committee.
(ii) The organisation said that they would organise the activity through video conferencing because of the pandemic yet had not included relevant budgets, which in his opinion was unreasonable and the Committee should not abruptly endorse the application. He suggested the Committee to endorse the application conditionally. The organisation would need to satisfy stated conditions to file an application to VC.
95. Miss WONG Pit-man pointed out that K&T DC Secretariat (Secretariat) had invited the organisation to attend meeting of VC on 28 October 2020. She suggested asking the organisation to answer the enquiries of members during that meeting.
96. Miss LEUNG Ching-shan suggested endorsing the application in the meeting and inviting the organisation to attend VC meeting to answer enquiries of members.
97. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai commented that Committee members should not endorse the application in a rush if they were in doubt. Instead, they should request the organisation to make amendments according to their suggestions before they could submit an application to VC. As the Chairman of VC, he could call for a special meeting to review the application when necessary.
98. Mr LEUNG Kwok-wah agreed with requesting the organisation to provide a back-up plan for the pandemic, but even if the application was endorsed conditionally in the meeting, the organisation may not be able to make amendments with regards to all the suggestions of the Committee members.
99. Miss WONG Pit-man put forth enquiries and opinions as follows:
(i) Whether the application could be endorsed by circulation of papers in the Committee if the organisation could give supplementary comments on the enquiries of members.
(ii) The event was seriously behind schedule, the organisation may not have enough time to organise. Therefore, she suggested the Committee cancelling the budget for the event if the review could not be conducted in the VC meeting on 28 October.
100. Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren understood the concern of Miss WONG Pit-man, but VC suspended reviewing applications from local organisations because of the pandemic or crowd gathering. The same standard should be applied on the activities of the Working Groups.
101. Miss LEUNG Ching-shan put forth opinions as follows:
i) The organisation may already have a back-up plan, but since they were absent from the meeting, they could not answer the enquiries of Committee members.
ii) While the event had been endorsed by the Working Group on Health and Occupational Safety in the Community, it was seriously behind schedule. The Committee should endorse the application in the meeting so that the organisation could organise the event as soon as possible to benefit the community.
102. Mr LEUNG Wing-kuen viewed that the Committee was only required to consider whether the aim, details and nature of events fit the need of local community when handling the funding applications of the Working Groups, whereas the budget should be approved by VC. He suggested conducting an evaluation in the Administration, Finance, Signature and other Community Healthcare Projects Committee if the Committee members held different opinions on the issue.
103. The Chairman suggested endorsing the application of the event conditionally and requesting the organisation to respond to the enquiries of members to be approved by circulation of papers in the Committee later.
104. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai put forth enquiries and opinions as follows:
i) According to the guide, the Committee needed to audit the funding instead of passing the application in principle.
ii) Suggested the Chairman to invite the organisation to attend the resumption meeting to respond to the enquiries of members or cut some of the expenses in their budget.
105. The Chairman sought the opinions of Committee members and decided, since the agenda had not been finished, to hold a resumption meeting on 23 October and invited the organisation to attend the meeting to respond to enquiries of members.
Working Group on Inclusive Community Working Group (CAC Paper No. 68/R/2020)
106. Members unanimously endorsed the above report.
Working Group on Environmental Hygiene and Climate Change Working Group (CAC Paper No. 69/R/2020)
107. Miss WONG Pit-man called for the Committee members to provide K&T DC Secretariat with the contact of each building in Kwai Tsing District before 23 October regarding the Novel Photocatalytic Coating in Kwai Tsing District (Novel Photocatalytic Coating).
108. The Chairman viewed that the Kwai Tsing District Office (K&T DO) should know how to contact each of the buildings and requested K&T DO to provide related information as soon as possible.
109. Mr LEUNG Wing-kuen hoped that K&T DO could provide the mailing addresses of the Chairmen of Owners' Corporation (OC) as soon as possible.
110. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai enquired whether the related mails could be sent through K&T DO.
111. Miss YIM Yik-huen, Bonnie, Assistant District Officer (Kwai Tsing) of K&T DO responded that K&T DO was verifying the information of the buildings and waiting for replies. Also, due to a shortage of manpower, K&T DO could not assist in sending the related letters.
112. Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve pointed out that OC expressed concerns about the materials of the Novel Photocatalytic Coating and enquired whether buildings with confirmed cases could be prioritised.
113. Miss WONG Pit-man responded that the partnering organisation of Novel Photocatalytic Coating would send a letter to OCs specifying the information. She asked whether the priority would be given to the buildings with confirmed cases would depend on the number of participating buildings.
114. The Committee unanimously endorsed the above report.
Working Group on Bazaars and Markets Working Group (CAC Paper No. 70/R/2020)
115. The above paper has been endorsed by circulation on 19 October 2020.
Follow-up Report on the Barbecue Sites at Kau Wa Keng (Proposed by District Lands Office (Tsuen Wan and Kwai Tsing), Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, Environmental Protection Department, Fire Services Department, Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, Planning Department, Hong Kong Police Force (Kwai Tsing District), Transport Department and Kwai Tsing District Office) (CAC Paper No. 71/R/2020)
116. Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve put forth enquiries as follows:
i) The contents of the report resembled that of the third committee meeting. He enquired the effectiveness of the actions taken by government departments and what the resolutions was if the actions were ineffective.
ii) Whether FEHD would confiscate the fridges and barbeque grills of the Kau Wah Keng Barbeque Ground (BBQ Ground) to deal with the problem of unlicensed operation.
iii) Autumn was the peak season for barbeque, yet not only would the smoke from the BBQ Ground affect the neighbourhood, but the singing and screaming at night would also generate much noise. He hoped the Environmental Protection Department could follow up on the situation.
iv) Whether the Police had inspected the BBQ Ground and prosecuted individuals who had violated the group gathering rules.
117. Mr CHEN Wai-kuen, Administrative Assistant/Lands (District Lands Office, Tsuen Wan and Kwai Tsing), Lands Department (LandsD) responded that LandsD had taken enforcement actions against constructions that committed lease breaches. The department issued a statutory notice on 28 September notifying the owner to rectify the lease of breach within a specified time. The department conducted inspection after the specified period and discovered that the breach of lease had been rectified. Yet it had been found out in recent inspections that unauthorised structures were present in the BBQ Ground. The department would continue to monitor closely and take appropriate enforcement actions.
118. Mr YAU Sing-yin, Chief Health Inspector(Kwai Tsing) of FEHD gave a consolidated response as follows:
i) The BBQ Ground did not open in July and August, yet since it resumed its business in September. FEHD had continuously been prosecuting and conducting enforcement actions with regards to its unlicensed operation.
ii) FEHD would conduct a joint enforcement action with the Cheung Sha Wan Police Station on the group gathering rules.
119. Miss YIM Yik-huen, Bonnie stated that K&T DO had been in touch with village representatives, residents and related government departments and would take prompt actions, such as discussing with the Police on handling of unauthorised parking.
120. Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve enquired whether FEHD would confiscate the fridges of the BBQ Ground so that it could not continue operating.
121. Mr YAU Sing-yin responded that FEHD would not confiscate the properties of the BBQ Ground for unlicensed operation but would conduct enforcement actions.
122. Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve pointed out that imposing a fine and conducting enforcement actions lacked deterrent effects and enquired what else government departments could do to combat unauthorised barbeque sites.
123. Mr LAU Chi-kit pointed out that FEHD would confiscate the properties of hawkers when prosecuting them for illegal hawking and enquired why handling was different for barbeque sites.
124. Mr YAU Sing-yin responded that since hawkers were hawking in public places illegally, FEHD was entitled to confiscate their properties. Since the BBQ Ground was a private space, FEHD had to apply for warrants of entry issued by the court to enter the site and conduct prosecution. Therefore, they could not confiscate their properties.
125. Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve pointed out that during the prosecution of illegal gambling in amusement game centres, the Police would confiscate gambling tools of centres so they could no longer operate. Therefore, he disagreed with FEHD and requested the department to consult the Department of Justice.
126. Mr TAM Ka-chun enquired how FEHD could prove that the BBQ Ground was involved in unlicensed operation without confiscating their properties.
127. Mr YAU Sing-yin responded that as long as FEHD staff had collected sufficient evidence including photos and witness accounts, they could conduct prosecution on the unlicensed BBQ Ground.
128. The Chairman pointed out that the court had given a verdict that FEHD could not confiscate profit generating tools of restaurants and enquired whether that was true.
129. Mr YAU Sing-yin responded that if the restaurants illegally extended their operating area to the streets, FEHD could conduct prosecution and confiscate their profit generating tools but not the items inside the stores.
130. Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve commented that the BBQ Ground issue had remained unsolved in years. For example, even if the site rectified the unauthorised structures after the LandsD issued a notice, it returned to its original afterwards. He requested government departments to provide solutions to stop the BBQ Ground from operating.
131. The Chairman suggested Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve to propose practical solutions to government departments and discuss them in the next meeting.
(The Chairman announced that the meeting would be adjourned at 1:32 p.m. on 21 October 2020 and would resume at 10:00 a.m. on 23 October 2020.)
Report Items
Working Group on Health and Occupational Safety in the Community (CAC Paper No. 67/R/2020) (Revision)
132. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai put forth enquiries and opinions as follows:
(i) Whether the organisation would submit a report about the result of survey as they had prepared 600 waist support bands as souvenirs at a relatively high cost of $27 per band.
(ii) Due to the pandemic, the organisation had switched the event into video classes. He enquired why the organisation had only planned to shoot 10 videos when there were 51 sessions in total for the workshop and yoga classes.
133. Ms CHAN Sheung-man, Centre Manager of Parent-Child Association of Education Needs Limited gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) The organisation would visit the community for 20 times and hand out 30 questionnaires each time, aiming to spread the information of women lifestyle diseases and raise the awareness of interviewees to their physical conditions through interviews and discussions. During the pandemic, women in the community were exhausted physically and mentally because of child care and housework, therefore waist support bands had been prepared as souvenirs in the hope of helping them to protect their waists and relieve the discomfort. Apart from that, the organisation would also produce leaflets that contained information about women lifestyle diseases.
(ii) In response to the pandemic, the organisation had planned to conduct small- class teaching and spread the information to more residents of Kwai Tsing district and students who were unable to attend the class through shooting videos of the talks and classes.
134. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai put forth enquiries as follows:
(i) Whether the organisation would submit a report to K&T DC to prove that the expenses of souvenirs were spent properly or just using the survey as a method to induce conversations with interviewees.
(ii) The content of the videos and how the organisation would allocate the time spent on shooting the talks, workshops and yoga classes.
135. Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) How the organisation would handle the remaining 600 bands as they had planned to produce 1,200 wait support bands in which half of them would be given to the interviewees.
(ii) Would enquire about the details about the workshops in VC meeting on 28 October 2020.
136. Ms CHAN Sheung-man gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) The organisation had planned to hold 5 workshops and 3 discussion sessions. Different women organisations would be invited to attend the sessions to be interviewed to promote information regarding women lifestyle diseases. These contents would be shot and produced into 10 videos to record the valuable and meaningful moments.
(ii) The organisation hoped to spread information about women lifestyle diseases through the questionnaires and raise the awareness of women to their physical conditions. The questionnaires could also help understand how well women know the relevant information. The organisation could submit a report to K&T DC afterwards.
(iii) The 600 remaining bands would be given to women including participants, volunteers and workshop tutors.
137. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai put forth enquiries and opinions as follows:
(i) Satisfied that the organisation said they would submit a report about the interview results to K&T DC.
(ii) Invited the organisation to attend VC meeting on 28 October 2020 to facilitate the understanding of members on the items in the budget so that they could review the application.
138. Ms CHAN Sheung-man pointed out that the event would end before 1 March 2020 so she hoped that it could be held as soon as possible for the sake of the women in the community and enquired when K&T DC would approve the application.
139. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai responded that VC would review the application on 28 October. The Secretariat received the application on 9 October while the entire review had been predicted to finish within 20 days, which was already faster than the normal procedure.
140. The Chairman declared to put the above application to vote.
For: 10 votes Against: 0 vote Abstention: 4 votes
Members unanimously endorsed the above application.
141. Members unanimously endorsed the above report.
Discussion Items
Request for Discussion on the Forced Eviction of Squatter Occupants in Kau Wa Keng San Tsuen (Proposed by Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve) (CAC Paper Nos. 63, 63a, 63b, 63c, 63d, 63e, 63f/D/2020)
142. Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve introduced the paper and put forth enquiries as follows:
(i) He had reported to the Police for 2 to 3 times and was allocated a case number regarding the forced eviction of squatter occupants in Kau Wah Keng San Tsuen (squatter occupants). The occupants had also reported to the Police on different criminal damages for multiple times, including the damaging of the network cable. Therefore, he enquired why the Police said they had not received the related reports.
(ii) Housing Department (HD) pointed out in CAC Paper No. 63d/D/2020 that under the referral of the Bailiff Office, squatter occupants could be arranged to live in Po Tin Interim Housing in Tuen Mun under HD. He enquired whether the authority would make arrangements until the squatter occupants became homeless.
(iii) Around 100 squatter occupants had been affected, yet no evidence had shown that the Government was helping them. He enquired how the government departments would provide assistance.
143. Ms WONG Hau-yi, Yvonne Senior Property Service Manager/Kwai Chung (Acting) of HD responded that she noted the opinion of members raised in the and would be referred to the Clearance Housing Unit under Housing Subsidies Sub-division of HD.
144. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai put forth enquiries as follows:
(i) Which government department was providing assistance to the affected squatter occupants. He enquired if LD had referred the squatter occupants to the SWD or HD for resettlement, social workers from SWD had proactively contacted them and HD had sufficient space for resettlement work.
(ii) Why HD had not sent a representative from the responsible team to attend the meeting.
145. Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) The issue involved private properties, and therefore was not related to LD. However, he hoped the department could help the occupants to measure the land boundary to clarify whether the area was privately owned.
(ii) Requested the Government to suspend handling the squatters for residential use on government lands.
(iii) Why HD did not send the representative from the responsible team to attend the meeting. He enquired whether the department would resettle the squatter occupants until they became homeless. He expressed specific concern about senior citizens aged 90 or above and households with multiple members. Also, the mechanism of department was to help New Arrivals who were ineligible to apply for public housings.
(iv) Whether SWD had provided assistance to the affected squatter occupants.
(v) How EDB would help students resettled to Po Tin attend schools.
146. Mr Leung Kwok-wah put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) The Government resettled survivors in private premises to Shek Lei Interim Housing in the past, therefore enquired why HD needed to wait until the referral from Bailiff Office to resettle the squatter occupants to Po Tin and whether that Interim Housing had enough units for around 30 units of occupants. Furthermore, why HD could not use Shek Lei Interim Housing to temporarily resettle the squatter occupants since its use would only be changed into public housing development in 2022.
(ii) Whether SWD would resettle the squatter occupants.
(iii) Why the Government could not postpone handling the squatters on government lands.
147. Ms LUI Ka-wing responded that SWD had received 35 cases referred by K&T DO in total. Family Service Centres had contacted and followed up with the cases. As of 12 October, the centre had only been unable to contact one case. The department would also follow up through Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve, K&T DO and related departments to handle the cases in time.
148. Mr CHAN Kin-kau, Manager (Acting), Squatter Control/Kowloon, Tsuen Wan & Kwai Tsing Office of LandsD gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) On the second meeting of the Committee on 6 May 2020, the representative from the Squatter Control Unit pointed out that no large scale enforcement actions had been conducted in Kau Wah Keng in the past two months. As of 23 October 2020, the Squatter Control Unit had not conducted enforcement actions in Kau Wah Keng. Yet LandsD was known to be expediting lease enforcement actions on unauthorised structures on private lands.
(ii) The Squatter Control Unit discovered a small number of suspected unauthorised structures after conducting inspection in the area of government land. The unit was conducting examinations. The department would explain the reasons behind the enforcement actions to the affected residents before demolishing the unauthorised structures on government lands. If occupants became homeless due to the actions, they would be assigned to temporary shelter provided by HD.
149. Ms WONG Hau-yi, Yvonne responded that the enquiries of Mr Leung Kwok-wah and Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve regarding interim housing would be referred to the Clearance Housing Unit.
(Post-meeting note: HD said that the enquiries had been referred to related unit.)
150. The Chairman put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) K&T DO should act as a coordinator since the issue was related to multiple departments.
(ii) Could not understand why the Police responded that no request for assistance had been received if Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve had reported the cases before, therefore suggested the Committee to follow up with a letter to the Police.
(Post-meeting note: The Secretariat circulated the reply from the Police on the enquiry from Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve on 13 November 2020 to the members. Please refer to CAC Circulation Paper No. 44/2020 for details.)
151. Miss WONG Pit-man enquired why HD had not sent representatives from the responsible team to attend the meeting and suggested the Committee to condemn their action.
152. Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve put forth opinions as follows:
(i) K&T DO had been following up with the issue yet no department could resettle the squatter occupants at the moment. He requested HD to follow up as the occupants received the vacancy order on 22 September 2020 and had to leave before 29 September 2020.
(ii) Strongly condemned HD for the department should have sufficient preparation time yet was still unable to answer the enquiries of members.
153. Mr LEUNG Wing-kuen pointed out that he understood that multiple government departments were involved in the issue but enquired whether HD could immediately arrange eligible squatter occupants for resettlement to live in interim housing.
154. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai enquired SWD the number of cases with housing needs referred to HD.
155. Mr LAU Chi-kit was dissatisfied with HD for sending an unsuitable representative to attend the meeting. The representative was unable to answer the enquiries of members. He hoped K&T DO could follow up.
156. Mr CHOW Wai-hung, Rayman enquired the Government whether a mechanism on handling squatters had been set up and why HD required the referral from Bailiff Office to arrange squatter occupants to live in interim housing.
157. Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren put forth enquiries and opinions as follows:
(i) Stated that departments evaded their responsibilities and enquired when the Government would provide assistance to homeless residents.
(ii) Suggested Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve and squatter occupants to call for a meeting with related government departments in the afternoon to handle the issue.
158. Ms LUI Ka-wing responded to the enquiry of Mr LEUNG Kam-wai that as of 12 October 2020, among 35 referred cases, 16 units had relocation plans, 10 units did not require immediate follow-up from SWD and the department had been following up with the remaining 8 units. The department was assisting occupants including some of the elderly and weak residents on moving, housing arrangements, financial and mental support.
159. Ms WONG Hau-yi, Yvonne gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) The current policy of the Government was to ensure that nobody would become homeless because of natural disasters or official demolition work. If anyone became homeless because of actions of the Government, natural disasters or emergency, they could apply to HD for temporary shelter under the referral of the Bailiff Office to facilitate seeking a new home or wait for verification of eligibility and resettlement.
(ii) The related enquiries of Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve and Mr LEUNG Kwok-wah would be referred to the Clearance Housing Unit after the meeting.
(Post-meeting note: HD said that the enquiries had been referred to related unit.)
160. Mr CHOW Kai-sing, Thomas, Liaison Officer I, Kwai Chung (Central & South) of K&T DO responded that K&T DO had been communicating with the members on the issue and would keep an eye on the future development to offer suitable assistance.
161. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai enquired SWD whether the 16 units having a relocation plan was referred to HD by SWD or conducted by the occupants themselves.
162. Ms LUI Ka-wing responded that the relocation of the 16 units was conducted by the occupants themselves, in which 5 of them had already moved and the remaining 11 units had a relocation plan. Regarding the accommodation, SWD and HD had maintained communication and would offer assistance to squatter occupants at their best.
163. The Chairman received an impromptu motion:
The Committee of K&T DC strongly condemns HD for not offering suitable assistance to occupants affected by the demolition of Kau Wah Keng squatters and not sending appropriate representatives to attend the Committee meeting to answer enquiries of members and solve problems for occupants. (Moved by Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve and seconded by Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren and Mr SIN Ho-fai)
164. The Chairman put the above extempore motion to the vote for acceptance. Members unanimously accepted the extempore motion for discussion.
165. The Chairman put the extempore motion to the vote. Members unanimously endorsed the above extempore motion.
(Post-meeting note: The Secretariat circulated the relevant paper from HD to members on 11 November 2020. Please refer to CAC Circulation Paper 43/2020 for details.)
Issues Concerning the Application Process for Setting Up Bazaars and How Different Departments Work to This End (Proposed by Mr NG Kim-sing) (CAC Paper Nos. 64, 64a, 64b, 64c, 64d, 64e, 64f, 64g, 64h, 64i, 64j/D/2020)
166. The Chairman briefly introduced the paper above and expressed regret over the absence of government department representatives. Also, he requested each department to respond to each of the enquiries raised in CAC Paper No. 64/D/2020.
167. Ms WONG Hau-yi, Yvonne gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) HD would refer to the existing mechanism to handle the applications for organising activities in public estates under HA and had already notified estate management staff the considerations and principles for establishing bazaars in public estates to facilitate them to handle suggestions on organising bazaar activities effectively. HA, as a venue owner of its public estates, had been proactively acting in accordance with the bazaar policy of the Government. If HA received concrete suggestions on setting up bazaars in public estates, the authority would study the feasibility of the suggestion and how it would affect related estates according to the needs and actual circumstances of the estate.
(ii) Because of the dense population, the grounds in public estates were usually for public passage, leisure facilities or public spaces. If the public estate area suggested for organising bazaars involved the property rights of the other owners, it would need to obtain their approval. Moreover, if land lease and Deed of Mutual Covenant could be applied to the area to restrict the floor area and purpose, the proposal of establishing bazaars may require the approval from the LandsD.
(iii) HA would assist the advocate to consult residents and other stakeholders on the suggestion of setting up bazaars through the Estate Management Advisory Committee of the estate. The estate office would invite related organisations to attend the meeting to introduce the details of the suggestion according to individual circumstances when necessary. If the related estate involved land lease, Deed of Mutual Covenant and other property owners, HA would assist the advocate to consult the related owners and the LandsD. If the related owners and other stakeholders opposed to the suggestion, HA would be a mediator so as to narrow differences.
(iv) The advocate could enquire the related estate office about the bazaar policy of the Government and review processes involved, as well as access to the registration forms. The suggestions could be implemented if the venue complied with the technical requirements and the proposals of advocates were supported by the stakeholders in related estates, the community and K&T DC, at the same time obtaining the required licences or warranty from the official departments.
(v) Whether the bazaars would be organised depended on the details of the proposals, the individual circumstances of the estates and the opinions of the residents and the stakeholders, therefore handling time required by HA would be different.
168. Mr YAU Sing-yin gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) FEHD would consider different factors including food safety, environmental health and whether it would lead to channel obstruction when certifying licenses. On the organisation of the would patrol the bazaar, the department was responsible for certifying Temporary Places of Public Entertainment Licence and Food Factory Licence and would conduct patrols at the bazaars to prosecute unlicensed food businesses. The department would conduct on-site inspection with the applicants after receiving the applications for Temporary Places of Public Entertainment Licence and consult related government departments depending on the category of events and location.
(ii) FEHD would offer advice to the organisations on whether an application for licence was necessary if the bazaars were organised in public estates.
(iii) Four licenses were related to FEHD regarding bazaars, including Temporary Places of Public Entertainment Licence, Temporary Food Factory Licence, Fresh Provision Shop Licence and Restricted Food Permits or Written Approval, more details were available in CAC Paper No. 64c/D/2020. The organisation must first obtain the Certificate of Fire Services, which was one of the primary criteria for the licence issued by Fire Services Department (FSD) when applying for Temporary Places of Public Entertainment Licence.
(iv) Regarding the Fresh Provision Shop Licence, apart from heating the food or selling pre-cooked food, the operators must not cook inside the store. Also, the operator could only use electricity as the fuel.
169. Ms LUI Ka-wing responded that the premises under SWD were used for supporting welfare services. Regarding whether they could be used for bazaars, the organisation would need to verify that the event was within the scope of supporting welfare services.
170. Ms LEE Oi-wan, Wandy, Deputy District Leisure Manager (District Support) Kwai Tsing of LCSD gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) LCSD remained opened to applications for bazaars and would refer to the current guidelines and procedures to handle the applications for renting leisure facilities under the department.
(ii) Since the Government encouraged bazaars in 2015, Kwai Tsing District Leisure Services Office of LCSD received 11 applications from 2016 to 2018 in which 8 of them had been approved. The department would review the related application based on the actual circumstances of the venue and the usage rate. In Kwai Tsing District, organisations had held bazaars at Wing Fong Street Market Rooftop Children's Playground, Kwai Chung San Kui Park and Tsing Yi Promenade. For Kwai Chung Sports Ground and Hing Fong Road Playground, since the usage rate of these hard-surface soccer pitches was relatively higher, the organisation's applications for non-designated uses might not be approved.
171. Mr WONG Ka-ho, Assistant Station Commander, New Territories Regional Office of FSD gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) FSD remained open to the application for bazaar activities. After receiving the referral from other Government departments about the applications for bazaar activities, the department would conduct patrols in related premises, assess whether the related location was suitable for the event in terms of fire safety so as to set related fire safety rules and suggestions to request the organisers to obey.
(ii) FSD referred to these criteria to consider whether the event was suitable to be held at related venues. First, the venue should not be located within 6 metres from dangerous goods warehouses. Second, the event should not cause congestion to fire services facilities including fire service outlets and emergency vehicular access. Third, the venue should keep at least 1.5 metres apart from fire service outlets, valves, fire safety facilities and the signs of emergency vehicular access. Fourth, the event should not hinder high angle rescue operations of fire services vehicles and facilities.
172. Mr WONG Chun-tat put forth enquiries as follows:
(i) Regarding the applications for Fresh Provision Shop Licence, whether the organisers would need to apply for a licence if the bazaar involved multiple cooked food booths.
(ii) Whether FSD would randomly or regularly conduct patrols in bazaars and prosecute malpractices.
173. Mr SIN Ho-fai put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) HD pointed out that the organisations would need to obtain the agreement from owners, including Link, for the department to review the applications. Since the bazaar would lead to competitions with tenants of Link, gaining its support would be challenging.
(ii) The time required for HD to review the applications and whether the procedures could be simplified as the aim of setting up bazaars was to help the underprivileged groups to start their own businesses or raise economic efficiency.
(iii) FSD requested every booth licence holder to acquire fire extinguishers, yet they were expensive and had an expiry date. He asked whether the department would be more lenient and allow one extinguisher for four to five booths.
174. Mr LAU Chi-kit put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) The aims of setting up bazaars was to help underprivileged groups and foster community harmony, therefore suggested making it a routine.
(ii) The application procedure for bazaars was complicated. Each relevant Government department had its own criteria for reviewing the applications. He hoped that the Government could review its bazaar policy and simplify the application procedures.
175. Mr HON Chun-yin viewed that bazaars could help build the spirit of mutual help in the community. He suggested the Government to simplify the application procedures and set up an inter-departmental working group to help members of the community organise bazaars as they had become a part the community life.
176. Mr TONG Ho-man put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Suggested making bazaars a regular routine as organisations held bazaars in Kwai Tsui Estate and Kwai Luen Estate, which received quite a lot of appreciation from the community.
(ii) Hoped the Government departments could actively coordinate with the organisations to hold bazaars as the application procedures for bazaars was complicated and the review was relatively time-consuming.
177. Miss WONG Pit-man put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Demand of the community to bazaars had been rising. Many organisations hesitated because they would need to apply to different Government departments including HD, LCSD and FEHD for holding bazaars.
(ii) Why the application procedures for Tsing Yi Bamboo Theatre were simpler and could be held for two consecutive weeks. She suggested inviting the host organisation of the event at Tsing Yi Bamboo Theatre to share related experience in the next meeting.
(iii) HD pointed out that the organisation would need to obtain the approval form stakeholders to conduct the review, yet since the bazaars would compete with tenants of Link, it would be hard to get the endorsement from the company.
178. The Chairman put forth opinions as follows:
(i) He advocated setting up Bazaars and Markets Working Group which aimed at simplifying the application procedure of bazaars so that normal citizens could host such activities.
(ii) In view of the time restriction of the meeting, he would put forth the related topic again in the next meeting so as to follow up on the progress of the activities under the working group.
179. Mr WONG Ka-ho gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) Two kinds of fuels, including cassette cookers with water capacity less than 500mL and approved by the Director of Electrical and Mechanical Services, were mainly involved when FSD handled the applications of cooked food booths.
(ii) Regarding the enquiry of Mr WONG Chun-tat, FSD would conduct patrols to the bazaars cooked food application. If the organisation required a Temporary Places of Public Entertainment Licence, the department would need to send staff to conduct patrols to ensure that the applicant had complied with fire safety rules before issuing a Certificate of Fire Service. If the organisations did not need to obtain Temporary Places of Public Entertainment Licence, such as for non-designated usage at leisure facilities under LCSD, the department would send staff to observe the venues and offer the applicant fire safety advice after the referral of LCSD. After the applicants followed all the advice, the department would check whether the related premises complied with the rules again and notify LCSD in writing that the related fire safety rules had been obeyed.
(iii) Regarding the enquiry of Mr SIN Ho-fai, the fire safety advice was that each booth that used electricity or petroleum gas should acquire a fire extinguisher. From the perspective of fire safety, the fire extinguishers should be placed at a reachable location for the operators when accidents occurred. The applicants must rent, or purchase fire extinguishers form qualified fire safety contractors. The applicants would need to provide fire extinguisher certificates when FSD conducted inspection to show the validity period of extinguisher and ensure that it could work effectively.
180. Ms WONG Hau-yi, Yvonne gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) HD acted as a mediator in handling of the bazaar proposal. The department would help the advocate to consult the residents and other stakeholders on the suggestions through the Estate Management Advisory Committee of the related estates. If the related estates involved land lease, Deed of Mutual Covenant and other property owners, HA would assist the advocate to consult the related owners and the LandsD. If the related owners and other stakeholders opposed to the bazaar proposal, the department would mediate in the hope of narrowing differences, so that they could reach a consensus at their best and make it possible for the proposal to be implemented.
(ii) Since whether the bazaars could be organised depended on the details of the proposal, the actual circumstances of individual estates and the opinions of residents and other related stakeholders, the time needed to review each application would differ.
181. Mr YAU Sing-yin gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) Regarding the enquiry of Mr WONG Chun-tat, each booth must apply for an independent licence. Regarding the application for electrical cooking, the requirements of the Fire Services Ordinance were relatively loose. Organisations would not need to apply for Temporary Places of Public Entertainment Licence if they used venues under LCSD for performances (such as Hing Fong Road Playground).
(ii) Regarding the application procedures, FEHD would offer suitable suggestions based on the application time. For example, if a stage was required to be set up for the activity, it must be approved by the Buildings Department. Therefore, the organisation had to submit the application at least 42 days before the event.
182. Ms LEE Oi-wan, Wandy gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) HKSKH Lady MacLehose Centre hosted bazaars in Kwai Tsing District in May, October and November from 2016 to 2018.
(ii) Charged and free leisure facilities under LCSD were available for booking and renting. The department would consider different factors when reviewing applications for bazaars, including space of the venue, location and usage rate. Regarding charged venues, the organisations must follow the guidelines of the booking procedures. Moreover, the playgrounds under LCSD were regulated by Pleasure Grounds Regulation (Chapter 132BC). According to the regulation, without prior permission, the sale of commercial goods, for example bazaars that involved trading money, should not occur in such kind of venue.
183. Mr SIN Ho-fai put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Whether bazaars were categorised as "Others' on the application form of booking leisure facilities under LCSD for non-designated uses according to the booking procedure of department. Moreover, the department only allowed the venue to be used for not more than 3 days. He enquired whether the department could deregulate the related applications and allow the organisations to combine the applications in the same month. If the organisations planned to organise 3 bazaars in a month, they would have to submit 3 applications forms.
(ii) Whether FEHD in Kwai Tsing District assigned specialised staff to handle bazaar applications to facilitate the communication with organisations. Moreover, regarding the statement of department that booths could only preheat food, he enquired why the bazaars in Tsing Yi Bamboo Theatre and Sham Shui Po were allowed to cook raw food on the spot, such as fried oyster omelette and takoyaki.
184. Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) The Government had no intention to provide a one-stop platform for organising bazaars. Although disagreed with K&T DC taking up the role, he enquired whether the Bazaars and Markets Working Group could be responsible for the coordination and invited Government departments to jointly review the applications for bazaars and provide immediate assistance to the organisations.
(ii) The Government had different standards for bazaars. He enquired why the booths in Tsing Yi Bamboo Theatre could cook raw food on the spot and did not need to acquire a fire extinguisher for each booth. Moreover, whether FSD could lend organisations fire extinguishers to lower their cost.
185. Mr CHEUNG Kwan-kiu, Steve put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Was aware of dozens of booths in Tsing Yi Bamboo Theatre and some bazaars cooked raw food on the spot and not every booth had acquired a fire extinguisher. He enquired why the criteria of government departments varied.
(ii) As bazaars had become more prevalent, government departments should establish a one-stop platform to handle the applications for bazaars and requested the Bazaars and Markets Working Group to follow up.
186. Mr CHOW Wai-hung, Rayman viewed that bazaars could relieve the pressure on the community during economic downturn, therefore he hoped that the Bazaars and Markets Working Group could discuss with K&T DO. He also asked the department to be a mediator so that organisations could organise bazaars in Kwai Tsing District as soon as possible.
187. Mr WONG Chun-tat pointed out that the enquiries of members were not against the Tsing Yi Bamboo Theatre. They only wished to draw on the experience of theatres and applied the framework on bazaars in the district.
188. The Chairman proposed inviting Tsing Yi Rural Committee to attend the next committee meeting to share its experience of hosting the Tsing Yi Bamboo Theatre.
189. Mr YAU Sing-yin responded that it was in fact against the regulations that the booths at Tsing Yi Bamboo Theatre cooked raw food on the spot. FEHD had conducted patrols and prosecution.
190. Ms LEE Oi-wan, Wandy responded to enquiry of Mr SIN Ho-fai, saying that organisations needed to indicate that the venues would be used for bazaars in the "Others" blank when they filled in the application form for booking leisure facilities under LCSD for non-designated uses. If the organisations planned to hold several bazaars within a month, they would only need to submit one form. The department would review the applications depending on the bookings of the venues.
191. Mr WONG Ka-ho gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) No further comments regarding the rules of Tsing Yi Bamboo Theatre could be supplemented at that moment. Regarding the application of cooked food bazaars, if the applicants could not comply with the fire safety regulations, such as acquiring fire extinguishers, FSD would not issue a Certificate of Fire Service.
(ii) Fire extinguishers were manufactured, maintained and repaired by qualified fire safety contractors. At that moment, FSD did not provide fire extinguishers lending services to operators in difficulties.
192. Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren enquired whether government departments would attend the meetings if K&T DC established a one-stop platform to handle the applications for bazaars.
193. The Chairman said that the Bazaars and Markets Working Group was willing to coordinate the applications for bazaars, yet it depended on whether government departments would attend the related meetings.
194. Mr LEUNG Wing-kuen enquired whether the government departments would jointly approve the applications for bazaars in related meetings.
195. Ms WONG Hau-yi, Yvonne responded that the HD was mainly a mediator and referred to the existing guidelines of the department to handle the proposal of establishing bazaars in public estates.
196. Mr YAU Sing-yin responded that FEHD needed to conduct patrol and inspection before handling the related applications.
197. Ms LEE Oi-wan, Wandy responded that if the bazaar was planned to be held at leisure facilities in Kwai Tsing District, she was willing to attend the related meetings, yet LCSD had to refer to its exiting procedures and guidelines to approve the applications.
198. Ms LUI Ka-wing responded that if the bazaars were related to premises supporting welfare services, she would attend the related meetings depending on the situation.
199. Mr WONG Ka-ho responded that FSD would consider attending the related meetings.
200. The Chairman said he would consider putting forth the related topic in the next committee meeting.
Motion: the Kwai Tsing District Council Requests for an Increase of Residential Service for Persons with Disabilities in the District (Proposed by Mr LEUNG Kam-wai, seconded by Mr SIN Ho-fai) (CAC Paper Nos. 65, 65a/D/2020)
201. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai introduced the paper and put forth enquiries as follows:
(i) Although the Government mentioned about adding residential services facilities, the overall planning neglected the demand for such services of persons with disabilities or mentally handicapped persons.
(ii) Tsuen Wan District and Kwai Tsing District belonged to the same welfare policy administrative area. During the revision of the Draft Tsuen Wan Outline Zoning Plan, the Government planned to prioritise the provision of social welfare services in two public housing development projects in Tsuen Wan like child care and elderly services, yet no facilities for the disabled or mentally handicapped persons had been added. SWD should coordinate with the Planning Department (PlanD) and HD to reserve suitable lands and premises in public housing development projects to cater the needs for disabled or mentally handicapped persons.
(iii) Whether he vacant campuses without long-term planning purposes could be altered into residential services facilities for the disabled or mentally handicapped persons.
202. Mr SIN Ho-fai supplemented some information and put forth enquiries as follows:
(i) Mentally handicapped persons had to leave the school and move out of the hostel when they reached the age of 21, yet the average waiting times for hostel for moderately and severely mentally handicapped persons were 9.5 years and 15 years respectively. Only around 300 quotas were available for respite services of SWD while the quota for Kwai Tsing District had not increased since 2015. He enquired why the department had not reserved suitable lands or premises in public housing development projects to provide the related welfare services.
(ii) Requested EDB to provide the numbers of people who had to leave schools and move out of hostels because of reaching the age of 21.
203. Ms LUI Ka-wing gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) SWD understood that the community had dire need to different rehabilitation services welfare facilities. The department would adopt a multi-prong approach to search for suitable venues to increase the number of residential and day care services facilities for persons with disabilities, including reserving suitable lands in new development projects or using vacant properties or public housing units. She thanked the current and past K&T DC for supporting the department to add facilities for persons with disabilities into development projects.
(ii) SWD called for members of the community to introduce persons with disabilities in need or their caregivers to seek help at District Support Centre for Persons with Disabilities (DSC) which would provide suitable and prompt services and support. Two service units were available in Kwai Tsing District: Caritas Joyous Link (address: G/F, On Pak House, Cheung On Estate, Tsing Yi, New Territories) and ELCHK, Kwai Chung District Support Centre (address: 1/F, Luen Yuet House, Kwai Luen Estate, 303 Kwai Shing Circuit, Kwai Chung). CAC Paper No. 65a/D/2020 also listed different support services, such as Parents / Relatives Resource Centre, DSC and Support Centre for Persons with Autism.
(iii) SWD introduced members of the Committee the “Tsuen Kwai Tsing Walk Together with Carers Project” through the brochures distributed. The related leaflets and posters would be sent to the offices of members to provide more information to people in need.
204. Mrs KWOK WONG Mun-yi, Senor School Development Officer (Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi) 3 of EDB responded that regarding the residential services of special schools, students reaching the age of 21 had to leave schools and move out from hostels according to the regulations. Schools would not reserve places for them in hostels.
205. Mr WONG Yun-tat, Ivan put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) While persons with disabilities had dire need to care homes and residential services, the waiting time had been increasing. Although SWD would purchase premises to provide welfare services as a short-term measure, long term welfare planning was necessary.
(ii) The Government mentioned in the Rehabilitation Programme Plan that moderately and severely mentally handicapped persons needed around 4,000 and 7,000 hostel places respectively, yet only several hundred places had been added in 5 years, which was far below the target. Only when the Government set policy targets (such as moving in in 3 or 5 years) would the related places be added exponentially. Moreover, he suggested adding the aforementioned welfare services in private development plans.
206. Mr LEUNG Kam-wai put forth enquiries and opinions as follows:
(i) Whether the department would consider adding care homes for persons with disabilities or mentally handicapped persons in several development projects in Tsuen Wan.
(ii) Whether department would consider renovating or rebuilding vacant campuses as a short or mid-term approach to provide residential services.
207. Mr SIN Ho-fai put forth opinions and enquiries as follows:
(i) Requested EDB to provide the numbers of people who had to leave the school and moved out from hostels because of reaching the age of 21 each year to help members of the Committee understand the situation of hostel places.
(ii) The public housing development at Ching Hong Road North had not reserved premises for care homes for persons with disabilities.
(iii) Father Cucchiara Memorial School at Cheung Ching Estate, Tsing Yi would move to Sham Shui Po in 2024. He enquired if SWD would discuss with EDB and relevant government departments the feasibility of renovating the campus to provide residential services.
208. Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren pointed out that Caritas Joyous Link which was a District Support Centre for Persons with Disabilities suspended its operations during the pandemic, affecting people in need of the service.
209. Ms LUI Ka-wing gave a consolidated response as follows:
(i) Regarding to the suggestion of Mr LEUNG Kam-wai, SWD had considered providing rehabilitation services facilities in the public housing development projects in Tsuen Wan. Moreover, the department would also reflect the suggestion of members of utilising vacant campuses as a short to mid-term solution to provide related services to the Labour and Welfare Bureau and SWD headquarters.
(ii) Regarding to the enquiry of Mr SIN Ho-fai, she would discuss with the PlanD and related departments the vacant campuses and study the feasibility of using them to provide more residential services. Building elderly care homes had already been included in the public housing development project at Ching Hong Road.
(iii) Regarding to the suggestion of Mr WONG Yun-tat, Ivan, SWD would refer his opinions to the related decision-making policy bureaus and SWD headquarters.
(iv) Regarding to the enquiry of Mr TAM Ka-chun, Warren, the fact that some of day training services had been affected by the pandemic had come into attention of SWD. Since confirmed cases arose in different welfare facilities, the department needed to strike a balance. The centre staff may be working from home, yet case services were still maintained regularly. They would contact people in need of the service through phone calls, video calls and instant messaging applications on smartphones. Moreover, direct training services resumed in late September.
(v) Called for K&T DC members to refer people in need of the services to the subsidised welfare units under SWD. The department had contacted 6 special schools in Kwai Tsing District, asking them to introduce the caregivers with DSC 1 to 2 years before graduations to provide suitable services and support. To strengthen the communication and service transition with special schools, the department would promote and advocate the related services in 5 of the schools in November and later on in the remaining school.
210. Mrs KWOK WONG Mun-yi responded that she would provide the number of students who had to leave the school and move out from hostel because of reaching the age of 21.
(Post-meeting note: EDB said special schools offer 12-year education to student (including 6 years of primary education, 3 years of junior secondary education and 3 years of senior secondary education). The age of entering school was usually 6. Students would leave the school after graduation. EDB had implemented the extension of years of study since the 2010/11 school year, special schools could refer to the objective criteria jointly set by the bureau and the education sector and determine with their professional knowledge to extend the years of study of needy students (including boarders). Therefore, some intellectually disabled students would receive education in special schools until 21 years old. In fact, students of this age should also move to another stage in their loves from school education. EDB encouraged parents to plan for the sake of students in the long term and discuss with the schools the school leaving arrangements as soon as possible.
According to the information special schools submitted to EDB, in the 2018/19 school year, 63 students in 6 special schools in Kwai Tsing District completed Form 6 education and graduated, whereas the information of school leavers in the 2019/20 school year was still being compiled. Since the school leaving arrangement was irrelevant to the age of students, EDB had not recorded the number of school leavers in special schools according to their ages.)
211. The Chairman put the motion to the vote. Members unanimously endorsed the above motion.
Any Other Business
212. Mr TONG Ho-man followed up on the arrangement of conducting inspections at hygiene blackspots in Kwai Tsing District (such as Kwai Fong Circuit and Shek Yam Road) mentioned in the third meeting of the Committee.
213. The Chairman responded that K&T DO requested to suspend the arrangement since FEHD and the Police would conduct a joint operation. Since the members made the request again, he would invite K&T DO and the Kwai Tsing District Environmental Hygiene Office to jointly inspect different hygiene black spots in the district, including Hing Fong Road, Shek Yam Road, Kwong Fai Circuit and village houses in Tsing Yi.
Date of Next Meeting The next meeting was scheduled to be held at 10 a.m. on 8 December 2020.
Kwai Tsing District Council Secretariat November 2020