(Translation)

Minutes of the 11th Meeting of District Council (5th Term) under the Special Administrative Region

Date: 5 September 2017 (Tuesday) Time: 9:30 a.m. Venue: Conference Room, Council

Present

Chairman Mr CHEUNG Wing-sum, Ambrose, BBS, MH, JP

Members Mr CHAN Kwok-wai (Arrived at 9:40 a.m.) Mr CHAN Wai-ming, MH, JP Ms CHAN Wing-yan, Joephy Mr CHENG Wing-shun, Vincent, MH Ms CHOW Wing-heng, Zoé (Arrived at 10:13 a.m.) Mr CHUM Tak-shing (Arrived at 2:00 p.m.) Mr HO Kai-ming, Kalvin (Arrived at 10:10 a.m.) Mr KONG Kwai-sang (Arrived at 10:30 a.m.) Mr LAM Ka-fai, Aaron, BBS, JP Ms LAU Pui-yuk Mr LEE Tsz-king, Dominic (Arrived at 10:20 a.m., left at 2:20 p.m.) Mr LEE Wing-man Mr LEUNG Man-kwong Mr LEUNG Yau-fong (Arrived at 3:45 p.m.) Ms NG Mei, Carman (Arrived at 9:57 a.m.) Ms NG Yuet-lan (Arrived at 9:33 a.m.) Mr TAM Kwok-kiu, MH, JP (Arrived at 11:40 a.m.) Mr WAI Woon-nam Mr WONG Tat-tung, Dennis, MH, JP (Left at 6:05 p.m.) Mr YAN Kai-wing (Arrived at 11:30 a.m., left at 12:30 p.m.) Mr YEUNG Yuk (Arrived at 9:40 a.m.) Mr YUEN Hoi-man

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In Attendance Mr LEE Kowk-hung, Damian, JP District Officer (Sham Shui Po) Miss MAN Ka-wing, Kelly Assistant District Officer (Sham Shui Po) 1 Miss CHEUNG Yun-chee, Freda Assistant District Officer (Sham Shui Po) 2 Ms CHAN Tsz-yee, Emily Senior Liaison Officer 1, Sham Shui Po District Office Mr WONG Leung-ping, Ben Senior Liaison Officer 2, Sham Shui Po District Office Ms NG Suk-min, Min Senior Liaison Officer 3, Sham Shui Po District Office Ms CHAN Wing-mee Acting District Commander (Sham Shui Po), Hong Kong Police Force Ms WONG Mei-yee, Amy Police Community Relations Officer (Sham Shui Po District), Hong Kong Police Force Mr LEE Wai-man, Raymond Chief Engineer/ 2 (Kowloon), Kowloon Development Office, Civil Engineering and Development Department Ms CHAU Fung-mui, Wendy District Social Welfare Officer (Sham Shui Po), Social Welfare Department Ms LEE Shuk-ling, Agnes District Leisure Manager (Sham Shui Po), Leisure and Cultural Services Department Mr LUK Chi-kwong Chief Leisure Manager (Hong Kong East), Leisure and Cultural Services Department Mr LAI Kah-kit District Environmental Hygiene Superintendent (Sham Shui Po), Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Mr LAU Ching-kwong, Wallace Senior Property Service Manager (Kowloon West and Sai Kung), Housing Department Mr CHOY Chik-sang, Mario Chief Transport Officer/Kowloon, Mr CHUNG Kum-wah, Daniel, JP Director of Highways Mr CHAN Che-keung Chief Highway Engineer/Kowloon, Mr LAM Kwok-fai Senior District Engineer/Kowloon West, Highways Department Mr CHANG Yiu-wa District Engineer/, Highways Department Dr TSE Man-wah, Doris Cluster Chief Executive, Kowloon West Hospital Cluster, Hospital Authority/Hospital Chief Executive of Princess Margaret Hospital and North Lantau Hospital Dr WAT Ming-sun, Nelson Hospital Chief Executive, Ms Liza CHEUNG General Manager (Nursing), Caritas Medical Centre Ms HUI Sau-lan, Fiona Senior Nursing Officer, Caritas Medical Centre Ms Laura LIU Community Relations Officer, Caritas Medical Centre Ms LING Fung-kwan Principal Estate Officer/Kowloon West (North), Lands Department - 3 - Action by Miss WONG Sau-wai, Vega Acting Deputy Director of Home Affairs/Assistant Director (4), Home Affairs Department Mr HO Yue-yeung, Jack Senior Administrative Officer (4), Home Affairs Department Ms SIU Mo-fei, Bridget Chief Liaison Officer (Building Management), Division IV, Home Affairs Department Mr NG Mun-sing Acting Senior Town Planner/Sham Shui Po, Planning Department Ms SIU Lai-kuen, Susanna Executive Secretary (Antiquities & Monuments), Antiquities and Monuments Office, Leisure and Cultural Services Department Mr NG Chi-wo Curator (Historical Buildings) 2, Antiquities and Monuments Office, Leisure and Cultural Services Department

Secretary Ms CHEUNG Ching, Jenny Senior Executive Officer (District Council), Sham Shui Po District Office

- 4 - Action by Opening Remarks

The Chairman welcomed Members and representatives of government departments to the eleventh meeting of the Sham Shui Po District Council (“SSPDC”) (5th Term), and said that Ms CHAN Wing-mee, Acting District Commander (Sham Shui Po) of the Hong Kong Police Force (“HKPF”), would attend this meeting in place of Mr CHO Ming-lung, Samson; Ms Amy WONG, Police Community Relations Officer (Sham Shui Po District) of HKPF, would attend the meetings from now on in place of Mr KO Chun-pong, Bon; Miss AU Mei-lin, Rebecca, Acting Chief Manager/Management (Kowloon West and Sai Kung) of the Housing Department (“HD”), would attend this meeting in place of Mr TSE Chick-lam. The Chairman also took this opportunity to thank Mr Bon KO for his contributions to this District Council (“DC”) during his tenure.

Item 1: Confirmation of minutes of the 10th meeting held on 20 June 2017

2. The minutes of the above meeting were confirmed without amendment.

Item 2: Director of Highways meets with Members of Sham Shui Po District Council

3. The Chairman, on behalf of SSPDC, welcomed Mr Daniel CHUNG, Director of Highways (“D of Hy”), and the representatives of the Highways Department (“HyD”) accompanying him to this meeting.

4. Mr Daniel CHUNG gave a brief introduction with the aid of PowerPoint on the organisational structure of HyD, its major road construction projects, the railway projects under construction and the construction works in Sham Shui Po District (“SSP District”), which included subway beautification works, the Enhancement Programme of Vegetated Slopes, the Universal Accessibility Programme (“UAP”), the works for provision of covers on walkways and the programme on use of LED street lights.

5. Mr WAI Woon-nam raised the following views: (i) he had requested HyD many years ago to relay the floor bricks on Cheong San Lane in Nam Cheong Estate. He pointed out that the walkway at the said location had been in use for nearly 30 years and the floor bricks there should be relaid. However, the Department kept saying that there was no need to relay the floor bricks and only requested the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (“FEHD”) to clean the area. According to the PowerPoint slides of the Department, floor brick relaying works would be carried out on some streets in SSP District gradually. He enquired if the Department had formulated a long-term plan for relaying all the floor bricks in SSP District, and hoped that the Department would provide the schedule for relaying the floor bricks on Cheong San Lane and nearby streets; (ii) the Department said that it would install LED street lights in the district. He suggested that reference be made to the street light design used in parks by the Leisure and Cultural - 5 - Action by Services Department (“LCSD”), projecting light upwards from the floor or using shorter lamp posts in order to create a pleasant atmosphere; (iii) he suggested that the Department launch a pilot scheme to combine the floor brick relaying works and the LED street light installation works so that when bricks were relaid, ducts and new electrical wires could also be laid for installation of LED street lights. The Department could even consider expanding the scheme to all 18 districts in the territory; (iv) gullies on streets were often blocked during the rainy season but HyD would only request FEHD to clear them upon receipt of complains. He pointed out that damage might have been caused to the gullies and requested HyD to carry out examination after the gullies were cleared, lest the cars driving by made a splash of rainwater, causing nuisance to the public.

6. Mr Vincent CHENG extended welcome to D of Hy who visited SSPDC and raised the following views: (i) he welcomed the improvement works to the two subways at Pei Ho Street and Kweilin Street. He pointed out that many people used these two subways and hoped that the Department could clean them properly; (ii) the road near the entrance to Estate were often packed with parked heavy vehicles such as container trucks. The Transport Department (“TD”) had agreed that there was a need to provide pedestrian crossing facilities at the said location because it was a road residents of the estate must pass through. However, HyD had said earlier that as it was unable to remove two trees at the said location, the works concerned could not be carried out. He expressed disappointment to this and requested the Department to come up with ways to provide pedestrian crossing facilities at the said location.

7. Mr LEUNG Man-kwong raised the following views: (i) he recognised HyD’s efforts in carrying out road improvement works, and hoped that the Department could attach more importance to the arrangements for small district works; (ii) the works on the bus stop outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building in Sham Shui Po had been delayed for many years and it was finally confirmed to be carried out. However, HyD said that due to insufficient resources, the works concerned would not be started until next year. He hoped that the Department could increase manpower and resources to complete the works concerned as soon as possible.

8. Ms Joephy CHAN extended welcome to D of Hy who visited SSPDC and raised the following views: (i) she thanked HyD for accepting the public’s views during the implementation of UAP earlier, which made one of the elevators connect to the podium on the third floor of Lai Kok Estate and thus improved the barrier-free facilities in the estate. She hoped that the Department would continue to hear the public’s views; (ii) quite a few places in SSP District had uneven floor surfaces (e.g. Po On Road Market and Shun Ning Road) but HyD had only carried out minor repair works, which was not a desirable situation. He hoped that the Department would put in place a regular mechanism for conducting evaluation of the walkways with high usage rate and formulate complete floor brick relaying plans to ensure the public’s safety. - 6 - Action by 9. Ms Carman NG extended welcome to D of Hy who visited SSPDC and raised the following views: (i) a typhoon had hit Hong Kong earlier, causing damage to the plants under the bridge at Nam Cheong Street. She requested HyD to address this as soon as possible; (ii) she welcomed the addition of elevators in her constituency under UAP and requested the Department to properly monitor the progress of the works to prevent delay; (iii) works were constantly carried out on a section of road from to Nam Cheong Street, causing traffic congestion. In some parts of the enclosed road, it was found that no workers were working there. She requested the Department to speed up the progress of the works to avoid blocking the traffic; (iv) the staff of HyD in SSP District had a positive attitude and deserved compliments.

10. Mr Daniel CHUNG gave a consolidated response as follows:

(i) He thanked Members for recognising the efforts of HyD. The Department noted Members’ views and would study how to speed up the progress of the works, improve the uneven floor surfaces of walkways, maintain gullies, etc.

(ii) The Department had always been striving to get resources for district works in order to address the needs of districts. However, as government resources were limited, the Department would prioritise the works and carry them out accordingly. In addition, carrying out a number of projects simultaneously would result in a number of roads being closed, causing inconvenience to the public.

(iii) When the Department carried out works, arrangements had to be made for different work processes and it might even be necessary to wait for a period of time before starting another process (e.g. roads with freshly poured concrete could not be open for public use immediately). This was why the misunderstanding of no worker being seen working on the enclosed road section arose. The Department was more than willing to explain the matter to Members and the public.

(iv) The Department would take follow-up actions on the typhoon-damaged plants under the bridge at Nam Cheong Street with the relevant departments as soon as possible.

(v) The Department would replace the aged floor bricks in stages, subject to the resources available and the impact on pedestrians. Members’ views would also be taken as reference.

(vi) The Department attached importance to tree conservation. TD had decided to change the design of the crossing facilities in and would carry - 7 - Action by out a consultation on the new design. The works concerned would start when the consultation completed.

(vii) The Department would start the works on elevators under UAP as soon as possible. However, as provision of elevators might require relocation of underground pipes of public facilities, the works concerned might take longer time.

11. Ms LAU Pui-yuk extended welcome to D of Hy who visited SSPDC and raised the following views: (i) the Department had said 10 years ago that the UAP project for the facilities across Road near Kweilin Street (Structure number KS25) had been feasible, but shelved the project earlier due to technical difficulties. She expressed regret at this. Residents had been hoping eagerly that barrier-free facilities would be provided at the said location, which would facilitate their access to the subway and MTR station from the ground floor. She hoped that the Department would continue to look for feasible options; (ii) she enquired about the specific arrangements for replacing the street lights hanged on tenement buildings or the external walls of buildings with LED lights and pointed out that the crime situation in SSP District was a cause for concern. The lighting at some places was quite dim and she hoped that more street lights would be provided under the programme on LED street lights to make the lighting brighter; (iii) she enquired about the floor brick replacement mechanism of the Department and hoped that the Department would consider reviewing the floor brick replacement arrangements fully and take the initiative to send staff to inspect floor bricks and carry out repair works.

12. Mr CHAN Wai-ming extended welcome to D of Hy who visited SSPDC and raised the following views: (i) regarding the provision of pedestrian crossing facilities outside the ancillary facilities block of So Uk Estate, apart from considering the problem from the perspectives of technology and tree conservation, he hoped that HyD would also take into account the needs of the community. He hoped that the Department could complete the consultation on the new design proposal and start the works concerned as soon as possible to ensure the public’s safety in crossing the road; (ii) the design of railings in Hong Kong was relatively crude, he hoped that HyD could improve the design to beautify the city.

13. Mr Dominic LEE extended welcome to D of Hy who visited SSPDC and raised the following views: (i) the staff of HyD responsible for the service in Yau Yat Tsuen deserved compliments as they handled complaints swiftly and were willing to have exchanges with Members; (ii) he was pleased to see that barrier-free facilities would be provided built UAP to connect Kowloon Rhenish School and the subway at Surrey Lane. However, it was expected that the works would take as long as 48 months to complete. He hoped that the Department could shorten the time required.

14. Mr YUEN Hoi-man said that serious noise pollution occurred at highways such as - 8 - Action by Lung Cheung Road, , Lai Chi Kok Bridge, etc. He hoped that HyD could allocate resources to explore how to make use of new technology to ease the problem together with the relevant departments, and put forward views when the authorities vetted residential projects near highways to prevent windows of residential units from facing highways.

15. Mr Yeung Yuk extended welcome to D of Hy who visited SSPDC and said that there were many trees in the vicinity of the schools in his constituency. The roots often caused bumps in walkways and pedestrians could easily trip over them. Also, as tree roots grew quickly, HyD had to handle the problems concerned every few months, increasing the workload of the Department. He enquired if there was a long-term plan to prevent the growth of tree roots from affecting pedestrians.

16. The Chairman raised the following views and enquiries: (i) the staff of HyD had performed well in following up on the progress of projects and deserved compliments. With the efforts of the Department, the works on the railings at near Mei Foo had completed. The cover replacement works on the bridge at Ching Lai Commercial Centre and the works on the walkways at Lai King Hill Road would also start soon; (ii) he was pleased to see that elevators would be constructed for the footbridge across Ching Cheung Road connecting Ching Lai Commercial Centre and (Structure number KF115) in the next stage of UPA and enquired when the works would start.

17. Mr Daniel CHUNG gave a consolidated response as follows:

(i) He thanked Members for recognising the efforts of the Department. The Department would encourage its staff to do still better.

(ii) Due to problems such as presence of underground pipelines and facilities, the Department had shelved the works on provision of elevators for the footbridge with Structure number KS25. In view of Members’ request, the Department would re-examine the feasibility of the works. However, he hoped that Members would understand that even if the works were feasible, relocation of underground facilities would still require a relatively long time.

(iii) The Department would consider installing LED lights at individual locations, depending on the situation. If Members would like to have the illuminance levels at certain locations of streets increased, they could pass the suggested locations to the Lighting Division of HyD for consideration.

(iv) The Department would take the illumination angle of street lights into consideration when designing, with a view to creating a better street - 9 - Action by environment.

(v) The Department sent staff to carry out inspections in various districts regularly. If uneven floor surfaces were found, replacement of floor bricks would be arranged as soon as possible to ensure pedestrians’ safety. Also, the staff of the Department would pay attention to whether floor bricks had aged, carry out tests and use available resources to replace aged floor bricks.

(vi) The works on the pedestrian crossing facilities at the entrance to So Uk Estate were postponed due to tree conservation problems. After completing the consultation, HyD would start the works as soon as possible.

(vii) The Department would look into improving the design of railings to beautify the city.

(viii) The Department would try its best to shorten the time required to complete the projects under UAP.

(ix) The Department understood that the public was concerned about traffic noise. As the design of many bridges was created without the expectation of supporting the load of noise barriers, the improvement measures that could be implemented were limited. Recently, the Department was looking into using standalone columns to add noise barriers for bridges. However, such method required installation of columns at the empty areas or walkways next to bridges, it might even be necessary to reduce the number of traffic lanes underneath bridges. As the roads in Hong Kong were busy, there were not many locations at which this method was applicable. The Department would take into consideration the traffic conditions, balance the needs of various parties and tried its best to add noise barriers for bridges.

(x) The Department would study whether the impact on roads by growth of trees could be reduced by planting other trees.

(xi) HyD was now recruiting works consultants in order to implement the project of Structure number KF115, and would conduct feasibility studies and create preliminary designs in the fourth quarter of this year for the elevator projects chosen by DC.

18. Ms NG Yuet-lan raised the following views: (i) many bridges were close to residences. Water accumulated at some parts of the bridges on rainy days, which affected pedestrians when cars drove by. The problem was particularly severe at the Road Flyover. She requested HyD to repair the drainage of the flyover to - 10 - Action by improve the situation; (ii) she pointed out that there were quite a number of people travelling to Ching Lai Court and Princess Margaret Hospital through the Ching Cheung Road Flyover and residents hoped that elevators could be built at Lai King Hill Road which led to Princess Margaret Hospital.

19. Mr YUEN Hoi-man said that many roads laid with low noise surface materials were still found to produce traffic noise of more than 70 dB, reflecting that the laying of low noise surface materials had a limited effect. He opined that HyD had the responsibility to do proper vetting of the residential developments in the vicinity of places such as West Kowloon Corridor to prevent traffic noise from affecting residential units.

20. Mr Daniel CHUNG gave a consolidated response as follows:

(i) Laying low noise surface materials on trunk roads produced a certain effect but it was often difficult to reduce the traffic noise to below 70 dB by using just one method. To address this problem, during sale of land sites and change of land use, the Lands Department (“LandsD”) and the Planning Department (“PlanD”) would add restriction clauses, such as forbidding sensitive receivers (e.g. windows) from facing roads that produce a high level of noise, to reduce the impact of traffic noise on residents living in new residential developments and redeveloped buildings.

(ii) HyD noted the rainwater accumulation problem at the Flyover and would examine the arrangement regarding provision of elevators at the Ching Cheung Road Flyover.

21. The Chairman concluded that he thanked D of Hy for attending this meeting and requested HyD to follow up on Members’ views and enhance road networks and facilities in order to address the needs arising from district development.

Item 3: Matters for discussion

(a) A brief introduction on the 2017/18 Work Plan of the Hospital Authority and Caritas Medical Centre under the Kowloon West Hospital Cluster

22. The Chairman welcomed the representatives of the Hospital Authority (“HA”) and Caritas Medical Centre (“CMC”) to the meeting.

23. Dr Doris TSE and Dr Nelson WAT introduced the 2017/18 Work Plan of the Kowloon West Hospital Cluster (“KW Cluster”) and the 2017/18 Work Plan of CMC respectively with the aid of PowerPoint. - 11 - Action by 24. Mr YUEN Hoi-man thanked HA and CMC for their reports and raised the following views and enquiries: (i) he was concerned about the overall allocation of resources of HA and enquired about the effect of re-delineation of hospital cluster boundaries on allocation of resources as well as the change in the ratio of medical personnel to patients. As far as he knew, the Authority had problems such as uneven allocation of resources but he opined that patients’ interests should be put first; (ii) he learnt that the Authority had shortened the waiting times of specialist out-patient clinics and enquired about the original waiting times, the measures and targets of the Authority and the impact caused by the re-delineation of hospital cluster boundaries; (iii) he understood that it was difficult to prevent medical incidents completely and enquired about the handling mechanism and follow-ups of HA.

25. Mr CHAN Wai-ming declared that he was a member of CMC Hospital Governing Committee and welcomed the representatives of HA and CMC to the meeting. He raised the following views and enquiries: (i) although there were four hospitals in KW Cluster after the re-delineation, residents in SSP District generally went to CMC. He was concerned whether the medical services currently available in the district could satisfy their demand and enquired about CMC’s plan for phase 3 redevelopment after phase 1 and 2 redevelopments of the hospital were completed; (ii) the population in Sham Shui Po would increase to over 500 000 in the next 10 years. Although the Authority had already used different means to relieve the pressure on hospitals, problems such as a shortage of hospital beds, lengthy waiting times, etc. were occurring at the moment. He was worried that the pressure on hospitals would be even greater in the future and there would not be enough facilities and manpower to meet the demand; (iii) he hoped that CMC would continue to enhance its service quality so that the public could enjoy good quality services.

26. Ms NG Yuet-lan thanked CMC for the introduction and raised the following views and enquiries: (i) the public opined that the waiting times for the services of CMC were too long and patients attending the accident and emergency department often had to wait for six to seven hours to be seen, reflecting that the hospital had insufficient resources. She hoped that the hospital could strive to get more resources; (ii) she was pleased to see that the Authority provided additional resources to launch psychiatric services. She pointed out that many people in the community had mental or emotional problems, not to mention that young people did not know how to seek help. She enquired whether the Authority had plans for providing support to students and schools.

27. Mr KONG Kwai-sang raised the following views and enquiries: (i) the cluster would make an extra 2 500 places available in specialist out-patient clinics and he enquired the length of waiting times expected to reduce as a result; (ii) he was concerned about the provision of psychiatric services and pointed out that the number of people with mental or emotional problems had increased in recent years, causing social problems such as suicide. - 12 - Action by He enquired whether the Authority had evaluated if the pilot schemes could satisfy the needs.

28. Mr YAN Kai-wing welcomed the Cluster Chief Executive of KW Cluster to the meeting and said that: (i) there were many borderline cases of mental health problems in the community and the subjects would hurt themselves and even disturb other residents. However, as they refused to seek assistance, departments such as the Police and the Social Welfare Department (“SWD”) had difficulties in following up their cases. As a result, the problems had never been dealt with properly; (ii) although departments such as the Police, HD and HA would convene meetings regularly, it did not produce very effective results. He opined that the relevant departments should strengthen their cooperation with Members and look into how to enhance services and provide more support.

29. Dr Doris TSE gave a consolidated response as follows:

(i) The framework of psychiatric services had three tiers. The first tier was public education; the second tier was service development for the community, e.g. provision of support by school pilot schemes to people in the community who did not need to be admitted to psychiatric hospitals; the third tier was provision of specialist services to those who needed to be admitted to psychiatric hospitals.

(ii) The second tier did not provide services to young people and students in a systematic manner, Kwai Chung Hospital therefore launched pilot schemes in schools to provide services to students known to have mental health needs. Each psychiatric nurse was responsible for about five schools and would have regular meetings with school-based educational psychologists, supervisors, social workers, etc. to provide professional advice. As for the students who cannot be ascertained whether having mental problems or not, the Authority did not rule out the possibility of expanding the service scope after evaluating the effectiveness of the schemes to actively look for hidden psychiatric cases.

(iii) The waiting times for the psychiatric services of KW Cluster were shorter than that of other clusters. After the increase in manpower, the waiting times of general cases had decreased from 70-odd weeks to around 30 weeks. The Authority was very concerned about the waiting times of psychiatric services because long waiting times could cause accumulation of problems which might result in tragedy.

(iv) The Authority attached great importance to community services. After all, only a small number of psychiatric patients were admitted to psychiatric hospitals, most of the patients had to integrate into the community. - 13 - Action by Members and other stakeholders were welcome to refer cases and provide information to the Authority to facilitate its follow-ups.

(v) Kwai Chung Hospital was undergoing redevelopment at the moment. The most significant feature of it was that it would provide better treatment environment for psychiatric patients and would be well-prepared to enhance its services in the future.

(vi) The waiting times for most of the specialist services of KW Cluster were close to or lower than the average waiting times of the HA at the moment. However, the waiting times for some specialist services (e.g. orthopaedics) were longer. In this regard, the waiting time at CMC was around 80-odd weeks and that at Yan Chai Hospital, which was a centre for bone fractures and joint replacement, was even over 100 weeks.

(vii) Apart from making an extra 2 500 places available in specialist out-patient clinics by the Authority, Yan Chai Hospital had also increased the number of doctors in its orthopaedic department this year and would provide a special allowance in the coming nine months to encourage doctors to work on Saturdays so that more places for new orthopaedic cases would be available, with a view to shortening the waiting time. As many new orthopaedic cases were relatively simple, the Authority would cooperate with family doctors. According to preliminary statistics, family doctors could handle around 80% of the cases, only around 20% of the cases require further follow-ups by orthopaedists. It was hoped that the pressure on orthopaedic out-patient clinics would be relieved as a result.

(viii) There would be population growth and demographic changes in Sham Shui Po in the coming 10 years. Not only would the elderly population continue to grow, the middle-aged population and the population of people aged below 18 would also increase substantially. Therefore, in addition to geriatric services, CMC would review its adult and paediatric services. To satisfy the demand for medical services in the district, the hospital had formulated short-, medium- and long-term plans, and the short-term plan included re-planning of the hospital space to increase the number of beds in the departments of surgery, medicine and geriatrics. In addition, the hospital would increase the number of pre-admission service sessions to make it easier for patients to complete pre-operative assessments before admission, day services and day surgeries would also be enhanced to shorten patients’ hospital stays. In respect of ophthalmic services, the hospital would strive to increase the proportion of day surgeries in order to reduce the bed occupancy rate. Faced with continuous population growth, the hospital would consider carrying out - 14 - Action by phase 3 redevelopment and there was some reserved space in the hospital that was available for use.

(ix) In September this year, KW Cluster would implement a major clinical service plan and one of its objectives was to develop a blueprint for hospital redevelopment and design in the next 10 to 15 years as well as to position the services of KW Cluster. Members of the steering committee concerned included the Chairman of CMC Hospital Governing Committee and therefore members of the hospital governing committee could also put forward their views.

(x) Regarding the effect of re-delineation of hospital cluster boundaries on allocation of resources, she pointed out that resources related to hospitals and patients would be diverted to KW Cluster but stressed that it was not a unidirectional flow, some resources would also be diverted from the Kowloon Central Cluster (“KC Cluster”) to KW Cluster. Three hospitals were added to KC Cluster and it seemed to have more resources than KW Cluster, this was mainly due to the presence of a children’s hospital in KC Cluster.

(xi) The hospital steering committee of HA headquarters understood that after the re-delineation, additional resources might be required for performance of some duties. Therefore, KW Cluster had put forward suggestion in the work plan of this year, hoping to get more resources to make adjustments to its services year by year.

30. Ms Liza CHEUNG gave a consolidated response as follows:

(i) The international standard was one nurse for every four to six patients but it was one nurse for every eight to nine patients in CMC. Both HA and the cluster were very supportive to the staff of CMC. Apart from provision of a special allowance, employment of additional part-time nurses had also been carried out. During peak periods of service demand, agency nurses and ward service assistants would be brought in as well to increase manpower.

(ii) The hospital would strive to make staff identify more with the hospital and have a greater sense of belonging, it would also provide more training with a view to retaining staff. The number of nurses left the hospital in this year was less than that in the last two years. The hospital would continue to, having regard to the service needs, review the manpower demand with a view to improving the services for patients.

31. Mr YAN Kai-wing enquired how contact could be made with the Authority if there - 15 - Action by was a need for psychiatric services in the community.

32. Mr Kalvin HO raised the following views: (i) the support for psychiatric patients in the community was not enough and the patients’ families did not know how to take care of them, which could easily cause problems. Although the Authority said that it hoped psychiatric patients could re-integrate into the community, it had not implemented any actual measures to help the patients adapt to community life; (ii) only the clinic on Kwong Lee Road provided evening out-patient services at the moment in Sham Shui Po. The population in the district would rise to over 500 000 in the future and it was not enough to have only that clinic providing services. He suggested that the Authority should consider upgrading Shek Kip Mei Health Centre into a general health centre providing evening out-patient services when it underwent redevelopment.

33. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu raised the following views: (i) he was concerned about the primary care services in the district. As far as he knew, the Authority was redeveloping Shek Kip Mei Health Centre in collaboration with the Department of Health and would develop it into a primary care centre. He hoped that the Authority could provide evening out-patient services and psychiatric out-patient services in that clinic to satisfy the needs of the community; (ii) he hoped that the Authority could strengthen public-private partnership and pointed out that there was only one location in the neighbourhood of Nam Shan and Tai Hang Tung available for operating a private clinic, which was not enough to address the demand. He suggested that the Authority should promote public-private partnership when redeveloping Shek Kip Mei Health Centre, for example, providing space for setting up private clinics so that the services in Sham Shui Po East would be satisfactory; (iii) in the past, the increase in hospital beds had been far less than the increase in population. Therefore, phase 3 redevelopment of CMC really could not be delayed anymore. He hoped that the Authority could consult local stakeholders more in the redevelopment process and urged the Authority to start the discussion in this regard promptly.

34. Ms NG Yuet-lan said that the psychiatric patient problem in the district was severe but private psychiatric out-patient services were expensive and not affordable to the public. There was indeed a pressing need to provide more public psychiatric out-patient services.

35. Dr Doris TSE gave a consolidated response as follows:

(i) The Authority would provide Members with the means of contact for referring cases after the meeting.

(ii) The Authority would carry out two large-scale out-patient clinic projects in the district. The first one was a general out-patient clinic on , which was expected to be completed in around 2021 to 2022 and would provide additional out-patient services then. Another one was the Shek Kip - 16 - Action by Mei clinic redevelopment project. The clinic would be redeveloped into a community health centre, which would have more floor area and provide more diversified services. It was expected to be completed in 2024. The Authority had started the preparatory work of these two projects and hoped that they would benefit the residents in SSP District in the future.

(iii) To help psychiatric patients integrate into the community, apart from sending case managers to provide support, Kwai Chung Hospital had also launched a “discharge scheme”, in which home environments were simulated in wards to allow psychiatric patients to get used to the life after discharge. In addition, the Food and Health Bureau and the Labour and Welfare Bureau would provide services to residents in homes for the aged who had mental problems and dementia through “medical-social collaboration” next year. Psychiatric patients in the community had needs of different levels and in different areas, and the Authority hoped to gain more information and experiences through “medical-social collaboration” in order to further implement the scheme.

(iv) The “i-Easy” app by CMC could remind patients verbally in Cantonese and English to go to the hospital for operations and carry out pre-operative drug management. It was hoped that the app could reduce the number of operation places wasted due to absence of patients. The “i-Easy” app had won gold in a medical management award in Asia in September this year. The Authority hoped to keep abreast with times and satisfy patients’ needs.

36. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu raised the following views: (i) he requested the Authority and the hospital to provide supplementary information in writing on the development plans of CMC and Shek Kip Mei clinic after the meeting to enhance transparency; (ii) he did not agree that the Authority should set 2024 as the completion time of Shek Kip Mei Health Centre redevelopment project. Elderly people who needed medical services had to walk up a steep road before reaching the health centre, which was very dangerous. Also, spending over 10 years to redevelop the health centre was not appropriate as it was a primary care clinic. He hoped that the Authority would review the redevelopment schedule and hoped that the redevelopment could be completed in 2020 to tie in with the intake time of phase 6 redevelopment of , reducing the impact on residents.

37. The Chairman thanked Dr Doris TSE and her team, and concluded as follows: (i) it was suggested that other details, including problems about psychiatric illness, arrangement of resources, redevelopment projects, etc., should be followed up on by the relevant committees under DC with HA and CMC to achieve better understanding and cooperation, making it easier for Members to grasp the situation and give an account of it to the public. He would made arrangements as soon as possible to facilitate the follow-ups; (ii) DC noted - 17 - Action by the 2017/18 Work Plan of KW Cluster and the 2017/18 Work Plan of CMC.

(b) Too many foreign domestic helpers assemble under the Mei Foo Flyover during holidays Residents are beset by the deteriorated environment and the problem should be solved properly as soon as possible (SSPDC Paper 149/17) (c) Request for the Government to set up an inter-departmental working group to solve the problems underneath the Mei Foo Flyover completely (SSPDC Paper 150/17)

38. The Chairman said that as Papers 149/17 and 150/17 were similar in nature, he suggested the two papers be discussed together. Members had no objection to it.

39. The Chairman introduced Paper 149/17 with the aid of pictures and added the following remarks: (i) the Mei Foo Flyover was a core area of Mei Foo. The paper aimed to take the views of local residents and foreign domestic helpers into DC and find a suitable solution to the problem of the passages at the said location being obstructed; (ii) he hoped that FEHD and the Police would carry out joint operations during holidays continuously to improve the environment there; (iii) he requested LCSD to consider providing more facilities at suitable locations for leisure use by foreign domestic helpers. The Sham Shui Po District Office (“SSPDO”) should help explore the proposals of opening community centres or schools or other feasible proposals to address foreign domestic helpers’ need for leisure facilities.

40. Mr Dennis WONG added that: (i) residents in Mei Foo were very concerned about the environmental problems underneath the Mei Foo Flyover and opined that the environmental hygiene conditions there were getting worse in recent years; (ii) he understood that foreign domestic helpers needed leisure areas. However, the co-loading activities underneath the Mei Foo Flyover attracted the foreign domestic helpers from other districts to gather there while illegal sale of cooked food posed potential food safety risks, and some people even made profit from providing illegally-occupied space to foreign domestic helpers for use. He opined that these behaviours deviated from the original intention of using the area underneath the Mei Foo Flyover as a leisure area and therefore hoped that the relevant government departments could step up their efforts in law enforcement, publicity and education; (ii) some areas outside Phase 8 had lower usage rates. He suggested that the relevant departments consider establishing leisure areas in these areas for use by foreign domestic helpers, but any illegal hawking and co-loading activities must be prohibited.

41. Ms NG Yuet-lan introduced Paper 150/17 and added the following remarks: (i) she thanked the relevant departments for working in collaboration recently to address the co-loading problem occurring the Mei Foo Flyover but opined that such efforts should be made continuously in order to achieve a better result; (ii) Mei Foo was easily accessible, which gave impetus to co-loading and other activities. The Government should look into - 18 - Action by prosecuting the people concerned; (iii) there were more than 300 000 foreign domestic helpers in the territory. The Government should provide enough leisure facilities to them. She therefore suggested that the Government look into opening schools or other facilities for use by foreign domestic helpers. However, to prevent attracting even more foreign domestic helpers to gather in Mei Foo, she had reservations about opening the facilities in that area.

42. The Chairman welcomed the representatives of FEHD, HKPF, LCSD and LandsD to the meeting.

43. Mr LAI Kah-kit gave a consolidated response as follows:

(i) FEHD had all along been concerned about the environmental hygiene and passage obstruction problems caused by gathering of foreign domestic helpers and co-loading activities, and had launched a joint operation with the Police last week, assigning more officers to patrol the area concerned on Sundays and public holidays. Also, the Department had additionally placed 10-odd large rubbish bins underneath the Mei Foo Flyover and assigned a cleaning team to clear the rubbish.

(ii) During the operation, it had been found that some people had occupied spaces underneath the Mei Foo Flyover with plastic sheets and cardboard, and the Department had immediately asked its street cleaning contractor to carry out proper clearing. The Department had also found some cardboard and trolleys suspected to be used in co-loading activities and therefore issued three Notices to Remove Obstruction, requiring the owners to remove the items concerned within four hours. The owners had later removed the items.

(iii) On the day of the operation, apart from assigning officers to patrol underneath the flyover, the Department had also checked if anyone had disposed of rubbish illegally, and done publicity and educational work, such as distributing leaflets printed in multiple languages and hanging banners at prominent locations, to remind members of the public to maintain environmental hygiene.

(iv) The Department had assigned two hawker management teams to combat illegal hawking activities and worked in collaboration with the Police to advise the co-loading activity participants who obstructed passages to leave, with a view to keeping passages clear.

(v) The Department had grasped the mode of operation of the co-loading activities underneath the Mei Foo Flyover, and was now seeking advice from - 19 - Action by the Department of Justice (“DoJ”). If the co-loading activities concerned were regarded as unlicensed hawking, the Department would make arrests and prosecute. The Department would maintain close contact with the Police and, subject to the situation, continue to carry out joint operations.

(vi) The Department would carry out pest control and prevention work regularly and provide the farmers’ market nearby and the property management office of Mei Foo Sun Chuen with professional advice on pest control and prevention.

44. Ms CHAN Wing-mee responded that the Police had the undeniable responsibility to maintain the law and order and had already launched a joint operation with FEHD to address the problems caused by gathering of foreign domestic helpers. If the activities concerned caused a breach of the peace, immediate danger to the public or danger to road users, the Police would take action immediately.

45. Ms Agnes LEE responded that LCSD was very concerned about the management and usage of park facilities. Lai Chi Kok Park currently provided about 40 pavilions/shade structures for park users to enjoy the cool and take a rest. The Department would actively examine the usage of various facilities in the park and consider looking into providing additional pavilions/shade structures with works departments if resources allowed to address park users’ needs.

46. The District Officer responded that schools might have different concerns about opening school premises for use by foreign domestic helpers during holidays, such as insurance, manpower, expenditure, etc. SSPDO would discuss the suggestion with schools through established channels and provide assistance when necessary.

47. Ms NG Yuet-lan raised the following views and enquiries: (i) she enquired how long the operation underneath the Mei Foo Flyover by the Police would last for and hoped that it could last for at least two to three months; (ii) the co-loading activities occupied walkways, which might cause danger to pedestrians. She enquired whether the relevant departments could take legal action to address the problem.

48. Mr Dennis WONG raised the following views and enquiries: (i) as hawkers would receive a fixed penalty fine and have their goods confiscated for illegal hawking, he enquired if the same approach could be adopted to deal with the illegal hawking activities underneath the Mei Foo Flyover; (ii) the people who conducted co-loading activities would place cardboard boxes underneath the Mei Foo Flyover, then collect foreign domestic helpers’ items, and carry out the packing process after that. Although FEHD could issue a Notice to Remove Obstruction to require owners to clear miscellaneous items within a certain period of time, he enquired whether there were any other actions that were more - 20 - Action by deterrent; (iii) some people would conduct co-loading activities at places that were relatively obscure, he enquired what enforcement action could be taken and opined that the management company of Mei Foo Sun Chuen needed to work in collaboration with the Government to address the problem.

49. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu raised the following views: (i) using the Jade Market as an example, he opined that the Government should provide support and regulate the existing selling activities underneath the Mei Foo Flyover through administrative arrangements; (ii) the problems could not be solved solely by the actions of FEHD and the Police. He suggested that SSPDO reflect the situation to the relevant consulates in Hong Kong, educating the foreign domestic helpers concerned through the consulates; (iii) if LCSD agreed that there was a need to provide more facilities such as shade structures in parks, it should start working on it as soon as possible.

50. Mr Aaron LAM raised the following views and enquiries: (i) Mei Foo was a well-developed middle-class neighbourhood and most of the foreign domestic helpers worked for the families in the neighbourhood. He suggested that efforts be made to understand their needs through foreign domestic helper groups; (ii) the communication between residents and foreign domestic helpers should be strengthened in order to promote mutual understanding. He hoped that meeting foreign domestic helpers’ needs and not affecting residents’ daily lives could be achieved at the same time; (iii) he opined that it was necessary to provide spaces for foreign domestic helpers to use, but construction of additional facilities in parks should be considered cautiously. Since everyone in Hong Kong could use the parks in the district, new problems might be caused if the management was poor; (iv) he condemned the practice of making profit from providing illegally-occupied space to foreign domestic helpers for use, and opined that such practice should be severely combated to reduce the disturbance to nearby residents.

51. The Chairman raised the following views and enquiries: (i) foreign domestic helper issues were not only district problems but also policy problems. Execution in the district would be easier if the Government formulated policies on foreign domestic helpers, and therefore he had suggested before that the Government should provide assistance in this regard; (ii) according the investigation by Mei Foo residents, about 80% of the foreign domestic helpers gathering underneath the Mei Foo Flyover were from other districts, only 20% of them worked in Mei Foo. They chose to gather in Mei Foo because of its accessibility and the availability of shops that sold Indonesian and Philippine food in the vicinity; (iii) as far as he knew, foreign domestic helpers also agreed that there were problems such as air pollution underneath the flyover, and therefore they were willing to consider going to other suitable places. He and the resident groups concerned could provide more information for the reference of departments.

52. Mr LAI Kah-kit gave a consolidated response as follows: - 21 - Action by (i) FEHD had to obtain enough evidence to prove that a person had been engaged in an illegal hawking activity before making arrest and taking prosecution action. The Department was now consulting DoJ regarding the co-loading activities concerned.

(ii) The Department had assigned more officers to patrol underneath the Mei Foo Flyover and advised the co-loading activity participants who obstructed passages to leave, with a view to keeping passages clear.

(iii) The Department would maintain close contact with the Police and consider carrying out joint operations continuously.

53. Ms CHAN Wing-mee responded that as the co-loading activities presently found underneath the Mei Foo Flyover, i.e. placing of cardboard boxes, collection of items from foreign domestic helpers and packing, did not involve criminal offences, the Police would not make arrest. At present, the Police carried out enforcement operations with FEHD on Sundays and public holidays and would conduct review and map out the medium- and long-term strategies at a later time.

54. Ms Agnes LEE responded that everyone in Hong Kong was welcome to use the parks under LCSD. The Department was concerned about the hawking and co-loading activities that might occur in the parks and opined that such activities might affect the management of the parks, and therefore would look into construction of additional facilities in the parks when all parties had reached a consensus.

55. The Chairman proposed a provisional motion (Motion 1), which was seconded by Mr Dennis WONG and it read as follows:

“Urge the Government to take the following measures against the hygiene, safety and passage obstruction problems occurring underneath the Kwai Chung Road Flyover in Mei Foo during holidays:

1. Step up joint enforcement operations during Sundays and holidays to effectively prevent environmental hygiene pollution, co-loading activities, illegal hawking and pedestrian passage obstruction, giving back residents a safe, clear and tidy passage and a space for leisure use.

2. Look into opening community centres and schools with low usage rates during holidays to provide foreign domestic helpers with necessary after-work life services.

3. Add shading facilities in suitable areas in Lai Chi Kok Park to address foreign domestic helpers’ leisure needs.” - 22 - Action by 56. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu suggested adjourning the meeting.

57. The Chairman announced that the meeting would be adjourned for two minutes.

(The meeting was adjourned for two minutes.)

58. The Chairman announced that the meeting was resumed and said that he received a provisional motion (Motion 2) proposed by Ms NG Yuet-lan and seconded by Mr TAM Kwok-kiu.

59. Ms NG Yuet-lan introduced Motion 2 which read as follows:

“Request the Government to formulate long-term policies to satisfy foreign domestic helpers’ needs for leisure space and help the residents whose lives are severely affected by the passage obstruction, co-loading activites and hawking activities caused by foreign domestic helpers.

1. Look into opening industrial and commercial public spaces during holidays, working with schools to open school premises, etc…”

60. The meeting voted on Motion 1 by open ballot.

61. The voting result was as follows:

For: Mr CHAN Kwok-wai, Mr CHAN Wai-ming, Ms Joephy CHAN, Mr Vincent CHENG, Mr Ambrose CHEUNG, Mr Aaron LAM, Ms LAU Pui-yuk, Mr Dominic LEE, Mr LEE Wing-man, Mr LEUNG Man-kwong, Mr Dennis WONG, Mr YEUNG Yuk and Mr YUEN Hoi-man (13)

Against: (0)

Abstain: Ms Zoé CHOW, Mr KONG Kwai-sang, Ms NG Yuet-lan and Mr TAM Kwok-kiu (4)

62. The Secretary announced the voting result: 13 Members voted for the motion, no Members voted against it and 4 Members abstained. The Chairman declared that Motion 1 was carried.

63. Mr Dennis WONG opined that the suggestion of looking into opening industrial and commercial public spaces in Motion 2 had conflict with Mei Foo district.

64. Ms NG Yuet-lan said that the suggestion in Motion 2 was territory-wide and hoped that the Government would look into opening industrial and commercial public spaces at - 23 - Action by policy level in the long run.

65. The meeting voted on Motion 2 by open ballot.

66. The voting result was as follows:

For: Ms Zoé CHOW, Mr KONG Kwai-sang, Ms NG Yuet-lan, Mr TAM Kwok-kiu, Mr YEUNG Yuk and Mr YUEN Hoi-man (6)

Against: Mr CHAN Kwok-wai, Mr CHAN Wai-ming, Ms Joephy CHAN, Mr Vincent CHENG, Mr Ambrose CHEUNG, Mr Aaron LAM, Ms LAU Pui-yuk, Mr Dominic LEE, Mr LEE Wing-man, Mr LEUNG Man-kwong and Mr Dennis WONG (11)

Abstain: (0)

67. The Secretary announced the voting result: 6 Members voted for the motion, 11 Members voted against it and no Members abstained. The Chairman declared that Motion 2 was not carried.

(d) Proposed amendments for the Building Management Ordinance (Cap. 334) (SSPDC Paper 151/17 (Revised))

68. The Chairman introduced Paper 151/17(Revised) and welcomed the representatives of the Home Affairs Department (“HAD”) to the meeting.

69. Miss Vega WONG introduced Response Paper 188/17.

70. Mr YUEN Hoi-man welcomed HAD to the meeting and raised the following views: (i) the bid-rigging problem was getting increasingly worse. He supported the Department to review the Building Management Ordinance (“BMO”) and opined that the relevant measures could effectively combat bid-rigging; (ii) the Government suggested raising the quorum of the general meeting of an owners’ corporation (“OC”) for passing resolutions on “large-scale maintenance projects” from 10% of the owners to 20%. Both the Democracy Party and he opined that such act could increase owners’ participation, recognition of the resolutions as well as the difficulty in rigging bids and controlling the general meetings; (iii) he opined that as maintenance projects often cost millions of dollars, it would be better if resolutions were passed in the general meetings only when the majority of the owners agreed, with a view to reducing disputes; (iv) if deed of mutual covenant (“DMC”) managers and property management companies intentionally failed to submit documents such as financial statements, accountant’s reports, etc., the people concerned should bear criminal responsibility to produce a greater deterrent effect; (v) he - 24 - Action by agreed that BMO should be amended to authorise the authorities to convene the general meetings when necessary so as to prevent management committees (“MCs”) from stalling the convening of the relevant meetings; (vi) in the long run, he hoped that the Government could set up a building maintenance regulatory body.

71. Ms NG Yuet-lan raised the following views: (i) among the cases she had helped handle, there was an owner who had an unreasonable maintenance project approved in a meeting through the use of a large number of proxy instruments. When other owners found out the problem, they had to devote manpower and resources to get the approval reversed. She used Eastland Towers as an example, pointing out that the large owner’s share of the property was close to 50% and therefore the small owners did not have any protection. The Government should review the existing laws to protect small owners’ rights; (ii) Members should encourage owners to participate in the general meetings of their OCs as well as matters that were related to the works of their buildings. She used Ching Lai Court as an example, pointing out that after Members had made an appeal, attendances at the general meetings of the OC concerned had increased substantially. The Government should also review BMO to prevent wrongdoers from making profit using the loopholes in laws, resulting in small owners suffering losses; (iii) many buildings in the territory had reached the age of 30, creating a large demand for maintenance. However, only 30 consultant companies were available and thus bid-rigging could happen easily.

72. Mr CHUM Tak-shing raised the following views and enquiries: (i) the Government’s original intention of introducing BMO was to let owners manage their own buildings. However, in recent years, some wrongdoers bypassed the requirements under BMO and committed offences; (ii) fake proxy instruments had been found before in the case of Eastland Towers. He opined that the Government should amend BMO more frequently, examine the requirement on the quorum of the general meeting of an OC, conduct review on how to verify proxy instruments and address the problem of the proportion of proxy instruments being too high; (iii) the total expenditures involved in the small-scale maintenance projects of many large housing estates were quite massive. He opined that the Government should review the definition of a large-scale maintenance project; (iv) OCs lacked professional knowledge in general. The Department should strengthen the support to them and help them discuss building maintenance matters; (v) many small owners had to seek assistance from the Lands Tribunal at their own expense in order to get the resolutions passed in the general meetings of OCs reversed. The Government should consider setting up an independent tribunal or a building maintenance regulatory body to strengthen the support to owners.

73. The Chairman said that the Council agreed that the Government should optimise BMO to crack down on wrongdoers.

74. Miss Vega WONG thanked Members for supporting the Government’s direction of - 25 - Action by work and gave a consolidated response as follows:

(i) The Department would consolidate stakeholders’ views and further optimise the legislative proposal concerned based on the legislative proposal and administrative measures submitted in March this year. Given the buildings in the territory were of different scale, the Department had to strike a balance and opined that it might not be appropriate to establish too many categories in the definition of “large-scale maintenance project” under BMO so as not to affect the manoeuvrability.

(ii) According to section 20A of BMO, if a person intentionally split a procurement contract for the purpose of lowering the contract amount and avoiding the compliance of relevant requirements, owners could request the Lands Tribunal to determine whether the contract concerned was void.

(iii) The Department would provide the Building Management Dispute Resolution Service, which would be run as a pilot scheme. A retired judge would be invited to take charge of it and provide objective views on dispute cases. The Department would examine the effectiveness of the scheme and then conduct review.

(iv) The Department opined that setting up a building maintenance regulatory body or building management tribunal might not be able to help owners immediately as it involved legislation and problems such as overlapping with the present structure of the Judiciary. Also, departments under the Development Bureau (“DEVB”) would regulate the contractors carrying out building maintenance projects and the Lands Tribunal would adjudicate on building management disputes. Therefore, the Department hoped to resolve disputes for owners through different administrative measures (including the Building Management Dispute Resolution Service, etc.).

(v) To enhance the accountability, transparency and retrospective effect of proxy instruments, the Government had proposed further amending BMO in March this year. The details were provided in paragraphs 7 to 11 in the annex to Paper 188/17. In addition, the Department had drawn up guidelines in May 2016 so that MC chairmen and secretaries could refer to the guidelines for the best practice when posting notices and verifying proxy instruments. The Department welcomed promotion of the guidelines by Members to OCs and encouraged them to comply with the relevant requirements.

(vi) According to the current BMO, an MC chairman should convene an owners’ meeting at the request of not less than 5% of the owners. To ensure MCs - 26 - Action by perform their duties and obviate the need to resort to court settlement, the Government proposed amending BMO to authorise the authorities to dissolve MCs that failed to perform their duties and appoint administrators to carry out re-election of MCs, with a view to protecting small owners’ rights. The details were provided in paragraph 16 in the annex to Paper 188/17.

75. The Chairman enquired how the OC of a large house estate having 4 000 to 8 000 units should organise its general meetings under the current amendment proposal of the Government.

76. Miss Vega WONG responded that:

(i) Currently, the housing estate that had 8 000 units was a public estate and the units therein included rental units and units that had been sold through the Tenants Purchase Scheme. A housing estate having such a high number of units was an extreme case. As that housing estate had a venue of relatively large size, the Department believed that even if the quorum was increased, the parties concerned would still have a suitable venue for holding meetings. In addition, for housing estates that had over 4 000 units, there were still cases where the general meetings of OCs were attended by over 10% of the owners concerned in person.

(ii) According to the current BMO, a proxy instrument must be submitted at least 48 hours before the time for the holding of the meeting and must be verified by an MC chairman. Before the time for the holding of the meeting, an MC secretary must display information of the owner’s unit to which a proxy had been appointed at a prominent location in the place of the meeting. As a large housing estate had many units, it took time to do the paperwork concerned. To protect owners’ rights, the Government hoped to optimise the guidelines concerned first before amending the ordinance in order to reserve enough time for MC chairmen and secretaries to process the documents as well as provide the better practice for reference.

77. Ms NG Yuet-lan thanked the Department for amending BMO and raised the following views: (i) a general meeting of the OC of Peace Garden had been attended by 1 000 persons before. She believed that as long as owners were concerned about their property rights, there would be enough attendees at meetings; (ii) property management companies had the responsibility to keep records properly for OCs and should bear criminal responsibility if there was any loss; (iii) many bid-rigging cases involved property management companies and consultant companies. The Government should introduce tougher penalty for the criminal offences in this regard. - 27 - Action by 78. Mr Kalvin HO raised the following views: (i) the Government’s amendment proposal could neither effectively prevent large owners from controlling meetings nor protect small owners’ rights; (ii) the Department said that amending BMO was not a way to tackle the root cause of bid-rigging and the relevant criminal offences, but it also said that the proposal concerned could help prevent bid-rigging. This appeared to be self-contradictory; (iii) BMO was drawn up by HAD while bid-rigging stemmed from the loopholes in BMO. The Department had the responsibility to address the problem; (iv) the Hong Kong Housing Society (“HKHS”) and the Urban Renewal Authority (“URA”) provided independent valuation services. However, they would only evaluate whether the prices quoted by contractors for works were in line with their valued prices and would not specifically provide the expenditure amounts of each item of works as well as that of the works as a whole. Owners could not make comparison and were therefore unable to prevent bid-rigging effectively. He suggested that the authorities consider setting up an independent valuation body.

79. Mr YUEN Hoi-man raised the following views and enquiries: (i) he opined that the measures concerned could make it more difficult for wrongdoers to rig bids; (ii) he supported the Department to amend BMO according to paragraph 16 in the annex to Paper 188/17, authorising the authorities to dissolve any MC that failed to perform its duties; (iii) he enquired if the Department would consider changing the deadline for submitting proxy instruments to 72 hours before the time for the holding of the meeting so that OC representatives and owners could have more time to carry out the verification process.

80. Mr CHUM Tak-shing raised the following views and enquiries: (i) he requested the Department to strengthen the support to OCs in respect of organisation of building maintenance works, reinforce the training to officers and send staff to attend the relevant meetings. According to past experience, when OCs were organising building maintenance works, property management companies and consultant companies would be deterred from engaging in unlawful activities if an independent third party (e.g. URA and HKHS) was involved; (ii) he suggested that owners be required to state their voting intention clearly in proxy instruments; (iii) the current BMO did not require owners to provide contact information in their proxy instruments. He enquired if the Department would make it mandatory for owners to provide contact information so as to facilitate the verification of the proxy instruments concerned by OCs.

81. Miss Vega WONG gave a consolidated response as follows:

(i) Apart from further amending BMO, the Home Affairs Bureau and HAD had also introduced the Property Management Services Ordinance (“PMSO”) in 2016 to set up the Property Management Services Authority (“PMSA”). PMSA would regulate property management companies and practitioners through a licensing system. In addition, apart from suggesting that property - 28 - Action by management companies be held criminally responsible for problems related to storage of documents such as financial statements, accountant’s reports, etc., the Department also hoped to further enhance the service quality of property management companies through PMSO and PMSA. If a property management company violated the ordinance concerned, it could be subject to fines and license revocation.

(ii) Regarding the problem of possible control of meetings by large owners who held the majority of the undivided shares, the distribution of undivided shares was set out clearly in DMCs of buildings. DMCs were signed by developers, owners and property management companies during sale of land lots by LandsD. Therefore, even if BMO was amended and PMSO was introduced, the problems arising from allocation of property rights and ownership of the majority of the undivided shares by larger owners in some housing estates still could not be solved.

(iii) Bid-rigging might involve criminal offences such as corruption, fraud, etc. At present, the problem was followed up on by the relevant departments such as the Competition Commission, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (“ICAC”), HKPF, etc. Amending BMO was not a way to tackle the root cause of bid-rigging and the relevant criminal offences. However, by increasing participation, transparency and accountability, the Department hoped that the proposal concerned could protect owners’ rights more effectively and prevent bid-rigging.

(iv) Apart from training frontline staff frequently, starting from April this year, the Department would also provide “Pre-meeting Advisory Service for OCs” to newly-established OCs and MCs or those that required it. Through the advisory services, the Department would give MC members advice on the procedures for conducting MC and OC meetings, etc.; briefed MCs/owners on professional consultant services of various natures; and advise them to consult relevant professionals before meetings to clear up doubts. As at the end of August, the Department had provided the advisory services for more than 2 000 times in 18 districts.

(v) Regarding the support to owners for organising large-scale maintenance projects, in addition to providing mediation and free legal consultation services, the Department would also refer the relevant cases to URA for follow up. The Department would convey Members’ views on Smart Tender to URA for its consideration.

(vi) After the implementation of the proposal concerned in the future, the - 29 - Action by Department hoped that it could further optimise the existing procedures and provide more guidelines and proxy instrument samples to OCs.

82. The Chairman concluded that: (i) this Council shared the same work objective as the Government, and hoped to increase the public’s participation and solve building management problems through amending BMO; (ii) the Department was requested to consider Members’ views, which included optimising the arrangements for meetings and use of proxy instruments, amending the definition of a large-scale maintenance project, enhancing the operation of property management companies and OCs, etc., to perfect the proposal concerned; (iii) it was hoped that the Department would convey Members’ views to the relevant departments to facilitate the follow-ups on issues such as building maintenance management, bid-rigging prevention and law enforcement, etc.

(e) The redevelopment of Garden (SSPDC Paper 152/17)

83. Mr Kalvin HO introduced Paper 152/17 and added that: (i) the Antiquities Advisory Board (“AAB”) would conduct grading and public consultation for the Garden Centre. He enquired who would be responsible for conducting the grading and whether the grading information would be made public during the public consultation; (ii) he hoped that the relevant departments would give an account of the impact of the Garden Centre project on the traffic at Cheung Sha Wan Road and its vicinity.

[The Chairman left the conference room for the time being and the Vice-chairman took the chair in his absence.]

84. The Vice-chairman welcomed the representatives of PlanD, LCSD and TD to the meeting, and asked Members to refer to the joint written response by the Commissioner for Heritage's Office of DEVB and the Antiquities and Monuments Office (“AMO”).

85. Mr NG Mun-sing responded that:

(i) The Town Planning Board (“TPB”) had received the planning application (no. A/K5/782) related to the Garden Centre in July this year. The applicant proposed to carry out redevelopment on the Garden Centre land lot for use by shops and service industries, eating places, offices and cooking schools.

(ii) TPB had publicly displayed the application concerned since 25 July for three weeks to allow members of the public to put forward their views. During the said period, a total of 382 public submissions had been received.

(iii) The applicant had submitted additional information on 18 August, which included responses to departments’ comments, a revised drainage impact - 30 - Action by assessment report and pictures showing the height restrictions of the surrounding buildings. TPB would publicly display the information concerned from 25 August for three weeks. The public could submit their views on or before 15 September.

(iv) As the applicant had submitted additional information, it was arranged that this planning application would be vetted by the Metro Planning Committee under TPB on 13 October.

(v) PlanD had passed the information submitted by the applicant (including the additional information) and some of the public’s views to the relevant departments for their consideration so that they could put forward their views on the planning application.

86. Ms Susanna SIU introduced Paper 187/17.

[The Chairman came back to the conference room and the Vice-chairman returned the chair to him.]

87. Mr Mario CHOY responded that:

(i) TD mainly considered the impact of development projects on traffic and carried out assessments, including whether appropriate parking spaces and loading and unloading facilities were provided by the projects and whether the applicants had fully evaluated the impact of their projects on nearby transportation networks.

(ii) In view of the public’s views (including DC’s views), the Department would require the applicant to submit supplementary information to give an account of the impact of the project on the traffic at nearby roads.

88. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu raised the following views: (i) the development plan of the Garden Centre involved history and heritage conservation problems, many members of the public and local people had expressed their concerns; (ii) he was pleased to know that AMO was following up on the project and opined that TPB should vet the application concerned only after a grading result was available. He welcomed the arrangement of suitable channels by LCSD for the public to discuss the project and hoped that importance would be attached to public participation in the vetting process and local consultation would be carried out; (iii) there were deficiencies in the current traffic assessment and the information available at this stage could not let residents and the Council understand the impact of the project on the overall traffic condition of SSP District. Although TD had requested the applicant to provide supplementary information, it had not made submissions - 31 - Action by to the Council for reference; (iv) he hoped that TPB would consider comprehensively when vetting the application to prevent the problems in the district from worsening further.

89. Mr Vincent CHENG raised the following views: (i) the past conservation efforts in SSP District (e.g. revitalisation of the former and ) had produced fair outcomes, but the numbers of conservation project were getting less in recent years. He hoped that more historical buildings with special features in the district could be preserved; (ii) the Garden Centre was residents’ collective memory but this project was different from the earlier conservation project as it was privately owned; (iii) he was concerned about the transport support for the Garden Centre project. As the project was located at where traffic congestion often occurred, it was necessary to carry out more comprehensive traffic impact assessment.

90. Mr NG Mun-sing gave a consolidated response as follows:

(i) He understood that time was required to evaluate the conservation value of the project and submit supplementary information of the traffic impact assessment.

(ii) Upon receipt of further information from the applicant, this application had to be submitted to TPB for consideration within two months as required by the Town Planning Ordinance. PlanD would prepare documents that contained the latest information collected, including the grading progress of AMO and the views of TD on the traffic impact assessment, for TPB to consider at its meeting on 13 October this year.

(iii) As the public consultation period of the applying project had not ended yet, Members could submit their views directly to the TPB Secretariat before 15 September for TPB to consider at its meeting on 13 October.

91. Ms Susanna SIU gave a consolidated response as follows:

(i) AMO had started the study on the Garden Centre project and Members were welcome to provide information about the Garden Centre.

(ii) After the study was finished, AMO would submit the study result to the independent Historic Buildings Assessment Panel for it to conduct evaluation and provide a proposed grading for AAB to consider. After AAB had approved the proposed grading, AMO would upload the relevant information and proposed grading to the website of AAB and conduct a one-month public consultation. AAB would consider all the views and information collected during the public consultation and then reconfirm the grading of the project. - 32 - Action by The grading process was open and transparent, and members of the public were welcome to submit views during the public consultation period.

92. The Chairman enquired about the time required for the grading process.

93. Ms Susanna SIU responded that the grading process would take a few months if it went smoothly.

94. Mr YUEN Hoi-man raised the following views: (i) he suggested that SSPDO help the relevant departments conduct the consultation, such as conveying to TPB the views of residents, especially those related to history and collective memory; (ii) the office building development plans in the district often cause controversies over private property ownership and conservation, bureaux might need to intervene.

95. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu raised the following views: (i) evaluation of historical heritage should not be carried out hastily and therefore it was inadvisable for TPB to vet the Garden Centre project in its meeting on 13 October; (ii) traffic impact assessment required less time than historical building grading, he suggested that TD submit traffic impact assessment information first for the Transport Affairs Committee (“TAC”) to discuss later; (iii) it was necessary to consider the impact of the project on the society as a whole.

96. The Chairman pointed out that the monument and antiquity assessment result concerned was not yet available when TPB vetted the application, and enquired how the case would be handled in this situation.

97. Mr NG Mun-sing responded that PlanD would specify the situation in the submission to TPB for its consideration.

98. Mr Mario CHOY responded that TD would require the applicant to submit supplementary information related to the traffic impact assessment as soon as possible.

99. Mr NG Mun-sing supplemented his response as follows: (i) if the applicant submitted further information to TPB regarding the traffic impact assessment, such information would be made available at the Planning Enquiry Counters of PlanD for public inspection. If such information was regarded as important information, TPB would also publish notices in newspapers; (ii) as the further information submitted by the applicant was regarded as public information, PlanD did not have particular views about TAC discussing the information.

100. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu said that as the grading process of the Garden Centre was ongoing and the traffic impact assessment of the project was insufficient, it was not appropriate to submit the application to TPB in October for vetting; (ii) next TAC meeting - 33 - Action by would be held in October this year, he believed that the parties concerned could have further information of the traffic impact assessment ready by then.

101. The Chairman concluded that the Garden Centre was a landmark in SSP District. As AMO was currently assessing the project, this Council opined that TPB should wait until the assessement result was available and then take it together with the traffic impact assessment and other relevant factors into consideration before making a decision. He requested PlanD to reflect DC’s views.

(f) To increase the transparency of the use of DC funds by implementing participatory budgeting and boost residents’ confidence towards DC (SSPDC Paper 153/17) (g) To face up to the management of DC Members’ interest declaration and conflict of interest and ensure that DC funds allocations will be open and transparent and will adhere to the principle of procedural justice (SSPDC Paper 154/17)

102. The Chairman said that as Papers 153/17 and 154/17 were similar in nature, he suggested the two papers be discussed together. Members had no objection.

103. Mr YUEN Hoi-man introduced Paper 153/17 and added the following remarks: (i) currently, funding applications were handled by circulation of papers. Members could not know the information related to declaration of interest when making decisions. He suggested that in the future, such information should be made available before requesting Members to consider funding applications; (ii) different DCs dealt with declaration of interest differently. He suggested SSPDC adopt the most stringent criteria, forbidding Members to participate in discussion and voting when they had made a declaration of interest, regardless of the positions they held in the organisations concerned; (iii) he suggested that DC upload the past funding applications and related documents to an independent website, with a view to increasing the transparency of DC funds and thus boost the public’s confidence towards DC; (iv) as the report of the study on relocation of the wholesale poultry market would be completed soon, he had suggested before that the Non-Standing Working Group on Wild Bird and Poultry Market Problems (“WGWB”) should allocate more funds to launch the work concerned. However, the working group had approved using all of its funds on the publicity activities on prevention of feeding of wild birds without full discussion. As the funds of the working group increased from $22,000 last year to $60,000 plus this year, he opined that there was no justification for using them all on the publicity activities on prevention of feeding of wild birds (e.g. carnival) and the approach used to allocate funds was not transparent enough. The Working Group on Public Housing (“WGPH”) consulted its members about the use of DC funds and he opined that not only could such approach facilitate discussion and increase efficiency, it was also more appropriate; (v) he hoped that the use of funds could be transparent and open and the element of community participation could be increased. - 34 - Action by 104. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu introduced Paper 154/17 and added the following remarks: (i) DC Members should declare their links with district organisations in the first tier of declaration of interest. Members should not participate in discussion and voting if they had links with organisations; (ii) be it for DC funds or other funds, partner organisations should be invited and selected in a fair, open and just manner; (iii) the audit report pointed out that DC funds had increased but the number of community involvement projects and project participants had decreased. He opined that it might be due to the costs of some activities being too high, resulting in a decrease in the number of activities that could be held. He suggested making good use of the mechanism of non-reserved funds and increasing the amount of funds to allow more district organisations to receive resources for holding activities in order to address the needs of the district. He requested the Community Affairs Committee (“CAC”) to consider conducing district consultation and review whether the budget for non-reserved funds needed to be increased.

105. Ms NG Yuet-lan added the following remarks: (i) she opined that the procedures for applying DC funds should be open and transparent. She had requested in a meeting that it should be made open for organisations to apply for holding activities and the relevant publication leaflet be provided to her but she had not received the publication leaflet; (ii) using the earlier anti-rodent activities as an example, she queried the effectiveness of giving out a large number of cleaning packs in promoting anti-rodent measures and opined that DC should make good use of public money.

106. The Chairman asked Members to refer to the written response by HAD (Paper 189/17) and asked the Secretary to make response regarding the reporting system for declaration of interest adopted by DC currently.

107. The Secretary responded that:

(i) DC currently adopted a two-tier reporting system for declaration of interest.

(ii) Regarding the first tier of the reporting system, according to the Sham Shun Po District Council Standing Orders (“Standing Orders”), a DC Member/committee member should, within one month from the commencement of term of office/appointment as committee member, provide particulars of their registrable personal interests by using the form attached to the Standing Orders. According to the points to note about registration of personal interests of the registration form, the main purpose of keeping a register was to provide information about the pecuniary interests or other material benefits received by DC Members/committee members which might reasonably be thought by others to influence their actions, speeches or votes in DC or their actions taken in the capacity as a DC Member/committee member. DC Members/committee members should regard this purpose as - 35 - Action by the guiding principle when determining what personal interests should be declared.

(iii) Regarding the second tier of the reporting system, according to Orders 39(9) and 39(10) of the Standing Orders, if any DC Member/committee member found that they had a direct personal interest or pecuniary interest in any matter being considered by DC or the committee concerned, they must disclose it to DC or the committee concerned before the discussion about such matter started. If any DC Member/committee member found that they had any pecuniary interest or other interests in matters of tender, quotation and DC funds or had any link with the benefited party or potential benefited party, they must declare the interests before dealing with such matters. If a DC Member/committee member disclosed an interest in a matter, the chairman of the meeting concerned had to decide whether such member should speak or vote on the matter, should remain in the meeting as an observer, or should withdraw from the meeting. The second tier of the reporting system mentioned above was also applicable to working groups and circulation papers.

(iv) According to the audit report, HAD had informed the Audit Commission that the first tier placed importance on pecuniary interests. Therefore, although the Standing Orders stipulated that “other declarable interests” must be disclosed in the first tier, DC Members/committee members might think that their positions in the executing organisations were not regarded as “other declarable interests” as they did not get paid.

108. The Chairman raised the following views: (i) he suggested that Members focus on the current situation and the future when discussing; (ii) he hoped Members could understand that while the current practice might have room for improvement, it did not mean that the practice must have a problem; (iii) HAD was now drawing up guidelines based on the suggestions of the Audit Commission, which would be provided to the 18 DCs for reference.

109. Mr WAI Woon-nam enquired why HAD did not send staff to attend this meeting.

110. The Chairman responded that HAD had submitted Paper 189/17.

111. The District Officer said that HAD had submitted a written response and he had nothing to add.

112. Mr LEUNG Man-kwong raised the following views: (i) the Audit Report had been published in April this year while the Working Group on Festive Celebration and Publicity - 36 - Action by (“WGFCP”) meeting mentioned in the paper had been held in May last year. The working group had declared interests back then and the whole process had been clear and transparent. Members should not opine that the working group had violated the procedures for declaration of interest because of this; (ii) he had invited Members to join WGFCP many times in the past but the response had not been enthusiastic; (iii) when selecting the contractor for producing the publicity video for SSPDC last year, he had withdrawn from the meeting concerned as one of the bidding companies had been nominated by him, and that company had not been selected at last; (iv) although the Council had not yet conducted a formal review on the suggestions in the audit report, the working group had already acted on the suggestions related to declaration of interest strictly; (v) based on the current Standing Orders, he opined that there was nothing inappropriate about the practice of not requiring a declaration be made in the first tier as long as no actual pecuniary interests or material benefits were involved. He opined that review should be conducted after HAD had issued the guidelines and the positions that had to be declared should be stated clearly so that Members would know how to follow.

113. Mr CHAN Wai-ming raised the following views: (i) a Member opined that a declaration should be made in the first tier regardless of whether any pecuniary interest or material benefit was involved. However, he pointed out that the interest registration form did not require Members to provide the social service positions they held and no Members had made similar declarations. Therefore, he believed that all Members considered that a declaration was required to be made only when a pecuniary interest or material benefit was involved; (ii) last year, he had raised the issue of whether it was necessary to review the mechanism concerned and list out the public positions held by Members clearly. He believed that Members understood the importance of making the declarations, but the interest registration form currently used did not require the declaration of such information; (iii) he opined that Members would make declarations of interest in meetings following the requirements of the second tier and let the chairmen concerned to make a decision. He had been a DC Member since 2000 and the way DC used to handle declaration of interest had not changed much. Therefore, the Audit Report should not be used as the justification for apportioning blame for the past practice in handling funds; (iv) he opined that Members had the responsibility to actively participate in the vetting of funding applications. If there was a problem, they could raise it up in a meeting, instead of making an accusation of conflict of interest. Otherwise, it would be unfair to the Members who had participated in meetings.

114. Ms LAU Pui-yuk raised the following views: (i) the working groups under the Environment and Hygiene Committee (“EHC”) handled funding applications in a reasonable and lawful manner using the existing mechanism. As the Chairman of EHC, she found it disappointing and regrettable that over 10 funding applications of the working groups under EHC had been rejected; (ii) there was no conflict of interest between her and the organisations whose funding applications had been rejected. Members of the working - 37 - Action by groups under EHC had all made declarations of interest clearly in meetings, and those who held public positions (including consultant positions) had abstained from voting; (iii) EHC had always wanted to step up its efforts in promoting anti-rodent measures, and therefore the Working Group on Markets, Street Traders and Food Safety intended to allocate more resources to hold the relevant activities this year. Giving out cleaning packs was not simply a distribution of gifts but a way to promote anti-rodent measures, however, the funding application concerned had been rejected; (iv) some Members had neither participated in the meetings nor understood the work of the working groups and the content of funding applications, and yet they had objected to the funding applications. This was not fair to the Members who had participated in the meetings; (v) she hoped that HAD could issue the guidelines as soon as possible to further improve the mechanisms for declaration of interest and selection of partner organisations

115. Mr LEE Wing-man raised the following views: (i) as the Chairman of the Working Group on Healthy and Safe Community (“WGHSC”), he had invited members before meetings to nominate non-government organisations to hold activities that promoted a diet with “less salt and less sugar”, but at the end only one organisation had expressed intention to organise such activities and the application concerned had been endorsed by the working group; (ii) he opined that Members should actively participate in meetings but not taking contents of meeting minutes out of context. He pointed out that the members present would not have endorsed the funding application concerned if there had been unreasonable situations in the meeting; (iii) he clarified that he had no relation with the organisation concerned and always followed the practice that had been used for many years to handle funding applications. He did not understand why there were queries about him and opined that Members should not politicalise funding applications.

116. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu raised the following views: (i) the current practice of SSPDC was inconsistent. A standard practice should be established based on the suggestions in the audit report; (ii) publicly-elected Members should set a higher standard for themselves and all links with organisations should be declared in the first tier regardless of whether any pecuniary interest or material benefit was involved ; (iii) the practice of inviting only working group members to nominate non-government organisations to organise activities was not open enough as other organisations could not participate; (iv) he did not oppose organising anti-rodent activities, only opined that the partner selection process was not transparent enough; (v) the society had changed and fairness, justness and transparency were required in everything nowadays. The past practice was out-dated and there was a need to change.

117. Ms NG Yuet-lan raised the following views and enquiries: (i) she rejected the funding application for anti-rodent activities because there were problems with the partner selection process, not because she opposed organising such activities; (ii) she had never received any invitations to joint WGFCP before; (iii) she had participated in the meetings - 38 - Action by of the working groups under EHC before, and enquired the reasons for holding activities and whether other organisations had been invited to participate. However, she had been told that according to the established procedures, it was not necessary to invite other organisations to organise the activities; (iv) she did not agree that giving out cleaning packs was an effective anti-rodent measure and opined that the resources and manpower of FEHD should be increased to deal with rodent infestation; (v) she enquired if there was a cap on the subsidy for gift distribution.

118. Ms Joephy CHAN raised the following views: (i) in the meeting of WGWB on 7 July 2017, many members had opined that the wild bird problem in the district had not yet improved and hoped to use the resources available to solve the wild bird problem. However, some DC Members had not attended that meeting and therefore not understood members’ concerns; (ii) she clarified that the activities suggested by WGWB did not include a carnival; (iii) she agreed that it was necessary to review the procedures but hoped that the activities could be launched as soon as possible so that the public could be benefitted.

119. Mr YUEN Hoi-man raised the following views: (i) he had been referring to the parent-child orienteering competition day when mentioning the WGWB-suggested activity previously. He did not understand how the competition day was related to the handling of the wild bird and wholesale poultry market problems; (ii) WGWB had not discussed with members the meeting date in July. He had only been informed of the meeting date about one week before the meeting and therefore could not attend; (iii) in the meeting of WGWB in March this year, he had suggested using some of the funds to organise activities related to relocation of the poultry market. At that time, the working group chairman had said that the decision would be made depending on the amount of funds they would be allocated this year. Later on, although the funds allocated were more than that in last year, the working group used them all on the publicity activities on prevention of feeding of wild birds without full discussion and the process was not open and transparent; (iv) although HAD had not yet issued the guidelines concerned, DC Members should hold themselves accountable to the public and take the initiative to improve the current practice.

120. The Chairman said that all Members had reached a consensus that there was room for improvement regarding the past practice. In order to prevent the improvement measures by the Council from having omission and deficiency, he suggested that Members study the guidelines by HAD after they were issued and then conduct review.

121. Mr WAI Woon-nam raised the following views: (i) SSPDO had been responsible for many activities of DC in the past and it had organised the activities according to the Government’s procurement rules. DC had only started organising activities on its own about 10 years ago, however, the organiser selection process was not transparent and the funding applications submitted by organisations often deviated from the allocation - 39 - Action by guidelines of DC; (ii) the Council should review DC funds allocation procedures as soon as possible and should not wait until HAD had issued the guidelines to make improvement; (iii) WGHSC should use its resources on projects such as building a barrier-free community, monitoring air pollution, etc. while activities related to the elderly should be passed to the Working Group on Elderly and Rehabilitation Services and let the organisations related to the elderly to organise them; (iv) the budget for non-reserved funds should be increased to allow more resources for district organisations such as OCs, mutual aid committees, etc. to organise activities, preventing funds from being concentrated on certain projects; (v) previously, an organisation from SSP District had submitted a funding application to the Working Group on Environmental Protection (“WGEP”). That organisation had been cooperating with DC for a long time but its application had not been endorsed, whereas an organisation not from SSP District had been allocated funds. Such practice was not reasonable.

122. Mr Yeung Yuk raised the following views: (i) the Members who submitted the papers did not state that Members had a conflict of interest, they just wanted to improve the existing mechanism for declaration of interest; (ii) when discussing annual work plans, the approaches adopted by working groups were inconsistent. For example, WGPH sought members’ views by circulation of papers while some working groups only sought the views of the members present in meetings and the absent members could not put forward their views. He suggested using the approach of WGPH with a view to increasing transparency; (iii) he believed that the guidelines by HAD would be relatively mild and general, and opined that publicly-elected Members had the responsibility to use more stringent criteria.

123. Mr LEUNG Yau-fong raised the following views: (i) before the handover, the majority party in the Council would choose not to run for the chairmen’s seats of a proportionate number of committees and working groups with a view to handling district problems more effectively; (ii) in the past, DC had just been a consulting organisation and political power had not influenced the operation of DC much. Fund allocation could be carried out following the usual practice but the situation had changed now; (iii) he had once been the chairman of an antiquity and monument conservation group. Back then, the group had used most of its funds on hiring tertiary institutions to carry out studies, instead of organising carnivals or giving out gifts; (iv) he queried whether the chairmen of some committees/working groups could improve the livelihood in the district; (v) chairmen of working groups could invite people of a number greater than that of DC Members to become working group members. If they had a predetermined stance, it would be meaningless to have meetings; (vi) he had previously rejected the funding applications under EHC because they had not been discussed by Members in a meeting but only submitted to Members for consideration by circulation of papers.

124. Mr CHUM Tak-shing raised the following views: (i) Members had the - 40 - Action by responsibility to act as a gatekeeper for DC funds and optimise the use of resources; (ii) Members should consider whether improvement was required for the first tier and could even invite ICAC to explain the issue of conflict of interest to DC; (iii) to prevent members of the public from having the impression that DC activities were monopolised by certain organisations, maintaining a register of the organisations in the district could be considered. Every activity should be organised via open tender, instead of only inviting certain organisations to give a bid; (iv) he hoped that there would be a suitable platform in the future for Members to examine the allocation system in detail.

125. Mr Dennis WONG raised the following views: (i) Members might have new thoughts as time progressed but they should not immediately reject the past mode; (ii) some contents of news reports were not true or comprehensive. For example, about the anti-rodent activities, the funding application concerned planned to distribute 1 000 cleaning packs. He opined that Members could have different opinions but they should discuss matters rationally; (iii) anyone was eligible to take the materials distributed by DC; (iv) he opined that in respect of promotion of anti-rodent measures, both education and publicity were important; (v) he suggested that Members should actively participate in working group meetings to pool views and ideas; (vi) he opined that review of the current practice should be conducted after HAD had issued the guidelines to improve the mechanism concerned.

126. The Chairman preliminarily concluded as follows: (i) HAD would draw up new guidelines for selection of organisations and declaration of interest. He opined that the guidelines would form a sound basis for making improvement to the current practice. The Member’s view about more stringent criteria should be used was also noted; (ii) he hoped that Members could fully participate in the discussions about funding applications next year before making decisions; (iii) on the matter of improving the existing system, he had undeniable responsibility and would participate in the work concerned with the assistance of the Secretariat and the chairmen of the committees/working groups. All Members could discuss together on the platform of the Council to decide the improvement direction.

127. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu raised the following views: (i) he understood that it took time to draw up operation guidelines; (ii) what the papers provided were suggestions on principles. For example, Members were required to declare their links with organisations in the first tier. It should not be difficult to put this into practice and the Members/co-opted members with links were not allowed to participate in the voting on funding applications; (iii) there had been no administrative funds back when he had been the Chairman of DC, while in this financial year, $3.5 million was available for employing administrative executives and project coordinators. Therefore, support should be available for organising more DC activities; (iv) the fund allocation process in this financial year had only started about three months ago and many activities had yet to be - 41 - Action by held. It was still possible to re-invite organisations to organise activities; (v) he suggested considering the adoption of participatory budgeting, having public discussions and studying whether it was necessary to allocate more money to non-reserved funds so that more mutual aid committees, OCs and small organisations could receive DC resources.

128. The Chairman said that it was difficult to reach a conclusion in this meeting and therefore hoped that Members could focus the discussion on main principles, such as the definition of “other declarable interests”, to get the mainstream opinion, and have discussion again after studying the guidelines to be issued by HAD.

129. Ms NG Yuet-lan raised the following views and enquiries: (i) she hoped that in the future, working groups could let Members know the activities to be organised and discuss the content of the activities to ensure that resources were used appropriately; (ii) she opined that many activities distributed gifts that were not relevant to their themes.

[Some observers commented loudly.]

130. The Chairman asked the people in the public gallery to remain quiet and signalled for the discussion to continue.

131. Mr LEUNG Man-kwong raised the following views: (i) he did not oppose improving the systems for funding applications or declaration of interest; (ii) he clarified that WGFCP had sent reply slips to Members before meetings twice to invite them to re-join the working group. Also, when he had been the chairmen of different working groups, he had communicated with different Members. Therefore, the Member’s accusation was unfounded.

132. Mr YUEN Hoi-man enquired whether meetings other than DC meetings would be arranged to allow DC Members and committee members to have detailed discussion.

133. The Chairman said that the platform he referred to was not DC meetings but other suitable group meetings.

134. Mr LEE Wing-man raised the following views: (i) he did not oppose reviewing the allocation arrangements of DC funds in a pragmatic manner in the future; (ii) the audit report did not make public the names of individual DCs and no speculation should be made at this stage; (iii) the Council could conduct review on the transparency of the allocation arrangement in the future but right now things would be handled following the usual practice.

135. The Chairman said that the audit report did not make public the names of individual DCs. - 42 - Action by 136. Ms Joephy CHAN raised the following views: (i) WGWB was a non-standing working group and therefore it handled things differently compared with other working groups. She opined that Members could look into whether that working group should be regularised if it was deemed necessary. The funding application documents concerned had been distributed to the working group members in a meeting and the organiser had given a briefing in the meeting. This practice did not differ much from that of other working groups; (ii) as mentioned by a Member, an organisation that had been cooperating with DC for many years had submitted a funding application to WGEP this year but the application had been rejected. She pointed out that the organisation concerned had been holding book crossing activities in the past but changed to organise a barter activity this year. As there had already been a number of similar activities and with limited resources, the working group had to make a choice. She hoped that everyone could respect the decision made by the members present at the meeting that day.

137. Mr CHAN Kwok-wai raised the following views: (i) so far Members had all made declarations of interest according to the existing procedures. There were Members making a big fuss over the audit report and he opined that the accusation was not justified; (ii) he welcomed having discussion after the new guidelines were issued.

138. Ms LAU Pui-yuk raised the following views: (i) Members could choose freely which working groups to join at the beginning of this term of DC; (ii) working groups would try their best to have discussion and endorse funding applications in meetings. However, sometimes the meeting dates could not accommodate such arrangement so endorsement for funding applications had to be sought by circulation of papers; (iii) Members who had not attended the meetings did not understand the discussion process, they simply interpreted the meeting minutes out of context and raised queries about the organisers and those who had attended the meetings, which was irresponsible. She urged Members to actively participate in meetings.

139. The Chairman said that a conclusion had been made earlier and added that the Council would arrange different platforms for conducting review.

Item 4: Reports from Committees and Working Groups under the District Council

(a) Reports from Committees

(i) Report from the District Facilities Committee (SSPDC Paper 155/17)

(ii) Report from the Community Affairs Committee (SSPDC Paper 156/17)

(iii) Report from the Environment and Hygiene Committee (SSPDC Paper 157/17) - 43 - Action by (iv) Report from the Transport Affairs Committee (SSPDC Papers 158/17 & 159/17)

(v) Report from the Housing Affairs Committee (SSPDC Paper 160/17)

(vi) Report from the Committee on the Sham Shui Po Signature Project (SSPDC Paper 161/17)

140. The meeting noted and endorsed the content of the aforesaid reports.

(b) Reports from Working Groups directly under the District Council

(i) Report from the Working Group on Festive Celebration and Publicity (SSPDC Papers 162/17 & 164/17)

(ii) Report from the Working Group on Poverty Problems and Ethnic Minorities (SSPDC Paper 165/17)

(iii) Report from the Working Group on Healthy and Safe Community (SSPDC Paper 166/17)

141. Regarding Annex 2 to Paper 165/17, Mr CHAN Wai-ming added that the applying organisation of the “Half-year Bazaar Plan” had put forward some suggested amendments in the last third of August, which proposed changing the dates of the mid-autumn bazaar to 30 September to 1 October 2017 and the venue to the idle land site at the junction of Kiu Kiang Street and Hai Tan Street to provide 16 cooked food stalls and 50 dry goods stalls

142. The Chairman enquired whether the “Sham Shui Po Women Bazaar Plan” and the “Half-year Bazaar Plan” needed to be endorsed by DC.

143. Mr CHAN Wai-ming responded that the organisations related to this application had attended the meetings of the Working Group on Poverty Problems and Ethnic Minorities (“WGPPEM”) as observers before and discussed the plans concerned with members. The working group agreed in principle to support the implementation of the plans, and the applying organisation and government departments would take care of the details, such as matters related to the venue and the license.

144. The Chairman said that the meeting noted that WGPPEM supported the two aforesaid plans but it was up to the relevant government departments to decide whether the plans could be implemented as well as the detailed arrangements.

145. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu enquired about the progress of WGPPEM on the study on street sleepers. - 44 - Action by 146. Mr CHAN Wai-ming responded that the matter concerned was handled by the task force on the study on street sleepers and the Secretariat was now helping prepare the tender documents, which would be submitted to members as soon as possible for vetting and endorsement.

147. The meeting noted and endorsed the content of the aforesaid reports.

Item 5: Report on District Management Committee Meeting (SSPDC Paper 167/17)

148. Assistant District Officer 2 reported on the District-led Actions Scheme (“DAS”) of SSP District as follows:

(i) In respect of the project to strengthen support to “three-nil buildings”, 128 target buildings and 58 target locations with poor environmental hygiene conditions were included in DAS. Through the strategy of “cleansing in the day, household visits in the evening”, SSPDO had cleansed 102 target buildings and all 58 target locations, with 260 tonnes of refuse cleared in total.

(ii) After cleansing the target buildings, SSPDO had sent staff to carry out household visits with 228 owners, 71 of them had registered as Resident Liaison Ambassadors. SSPDO had also helped 14 “three-nil buildings” establish OCs. Regarding buildings with “inactive” OCs, SSPDO had contacted 129 OC members and 39 of them had become “friends of building management and liaison”. SSPDO had also successfully visited 35 buildings with “inactive” OCs and conducted education and publicity campaigns, as well as helped eight “inactive OCs” convene residents’ meetings to resume building management work.

(iii) In respect of publicity and education, SSPDO had organised 11 evening tea receptions cum theme-based seminars, with more than 670 people attended. SSPDO would also hold a seminar on 28 September this year, in which representatives from ICAC would promote the message of carrying out corruption-free building maintenance. In addition, SSPDO had offered “phase 5 of certificate courses on quality management of old buildings” in July this year, with 58 people graduated in total.

(iv) In respect of strengthening support to street sleepers, the Society for Community Organization had, through the “counselling and support services through social workers” commissioned to it, visited over 4 300 street sleepers in the 82 outreach visits made and successfully helped 29 street sleepers to be housed, while the Salvation Army had, through the “support - 45 - Action by service on physical and psychological health” commissioned to it, visited over 1 300 street sleepers in the 83 outreach visits made, and successfully referred 75 street sleepers to receive treatment and provided simple body check-ups to about 740 street sleepers.

(v) SSPDO had designated the area underneath the Tung Chau Street Flyover, the footbridge at Cheong San Lane as well as the subway connecting Exits C and D of MTR as the locations for priority action under DAS. No street sleepers gathered inside the subways at Kweilin Street and Pei Ho Street any more after an earlier clearance operation. Also, the team of social workers under DAS had worked in collaboration with LCSD in the cleaning operations carried out at Lei Cheng Uk Playground and Tung Chau Street Park in March and July this year to help the street sleepers there remove miscellaneous items.

(vi) In respect of strengthening support to “three-nil buildings”, among the owners who had been visited, over 85% of them agreed that the cleansing operations helped improve the environmental hygiene of their buildings and keep the fire escape clear. Many local people agreed that DAS could increase owners’ participation into building management, which encouraged the establishment of OCs, while building management activities and courses could increase residents’ knowledge about building management, and they hoped that SSPDO would continue to offer them.

(vii) In respect of strengthening support to street sleepers, many local people and residents recognised that the two-pronged intervention mode currently formed by the two services for street sleepers, in particular, the newly provided “support service on physical and psychological health” and “counselling and support services through social workers” were able to complement each other, expanding the coverage of the services. Residents gave compliments to DAS as it had successfully cleared the miscellaneous items in the two subways at Pei Ho Street and Kweilin Street and improved the cityscape.

(viii) Local people and residents supported DAS in general. SSPDO would put out to tender the building cleansing service of the new term as well as the two support services for street sleepers, hoping that these services would be extended seamlessly in early December.

149. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu enquired about the progress on the “Landlord Scheme” and locating land sites for providing hostels for street sleepers.

150. The District Officer responded as follows: - 46 - Action by (i) SSPDO was now studying the proposals concerned and keeping an eye on the situations of the hostels for street sleepers within and outside the district, and would examine the relevant modes and continue the study. In addition, the Transport and Housing Bureau might put forward new proposal in the relevant area, which was worth referencing for SSP District.

(ii) The study of WGPPEM on street sleepers was about to start. It was hoped that the data would help solve the street sleeper issue in the long run.

151. Ms LAU Pui-yuk raised the following views: (i) she supported continuing the operation of “cleansing in the day, household visits in the evening”; (ii) the report did not mentioned the problems therein, for example, the building at 304-310 Ki Lung Street was a “three-nil building” and a lot of refuse was piling on its conjoined rooftop, SSPDO had carried out a cleaning operation before but the situation had not improved much. She understood that departments might encounter difficulties when handling personal items but hoped that SSPDO and the relevant departments could try their best to help residents improve the situation.

152. The District Officer responded as follows:

(i) DAS provided one-off cleansing services for target buildings to let residents understand that cleansing services could improve their environment and, in turn, encourage them to establish OCs to solve the hygiene problem in the long run. DAS did not aim to replace the function of OCs and would not help the buildings carry out cleansing continuously.

(ii) SSPDO was aware that some non-residents were inhabiting on the rooftop of the aforesaid building, which affected the environmental hygiene. As that area was a private space, SSPDO had specially provided a one-off cleansing service.

(iii) Regarding the handling of personal items in the process of cleansing, SSPDO would try its best to deal with the problem in a sensible, reasonable and lawful manner.

153. Mr LAI Kah-kit added the following remarks:

(i) If the miscellaneous items or personal belongings piling on the rooftop caused mosquito and insect problems, FEHD could issue a notice under the law to require the owners to clear them before a deadline, or else they would be prosecuted. - 47 - Action by (ii) There were many sub-divided units inside the aforesaid building. To solve the problem once and for all, the owners needed to discuss how to prevent outsiders from entering, such as installing an iron gate, etc., and take proper security measures in order to stop non-residents from inhabiting on the rooftop and piling up miscellaneous items.

154. Mr CHUM Tak-shing said that DAS effectively encourage buildings to establish OCs to carry out building management. Apart from stairs and rooftops, canopies and yards of “three-nil buildings” were also places where dirt accumulated. If resources were available, he hoped that SSPDO could help clear canopies and yards.

155. Mr LEUNG Man-kwong said that street sleepers reappeared on the footbridge at Cheong San Lane and five to six street sleepers were present there at the moment. Although they would tidy their personal belongings, clear rubbish, etc., he still hoped that SSPDO could lead the relevant department to address the problem lest it worsened.

156. Ms Carman NG opined that joint enforcement operations failed to effectively tackle the problem concerning second-hand electrical appliance recycling operation at Hai Tan Street and Yee Kuk Street. Problems of street obstruction and environmental nuisance still existed in the said area and the situation worsened at night. She was worried that fire trucks and ambulances would not be able to access the area if a fire broke out, endangering the residents’ safety. She enquired whether the relevant departments would implement any long-term measures and enforcement operations to address the issue.

157. Mr WAI Woon-nam enquired whether the support services for street sleepers under DAS would be extended after such services ended on 30 November.

158. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu raised the following views: (i) he hoped that SSPDO would clear the self-made dwellings of street sleepers after they had moved into hostels for street sleepers through the “Landlord Scheme”, lest other street sleepers moved into the dwellings; (ii) there were street sleepers under the Tung Chau Street Flyover who appeared to be torture claimants but the International Social Service - Hong Kong Branch (“ISS-HK”) said that there were no such cases. He hoped that SWD and SSPDO would look into the situation.

159. The District Officer gave a consolidated response as follows:

(i) SSPDO noted that street sleepers reappeared on the footbridge at Cheong San Lane and was working with the relevant departments to follow up and find a long-term solution.

(ii) SSPDO would extend the support services for street sleepers after such - 48 - Action by services ended on 30 November and hoped that a seamless extension could be achieved.

(iii) SSPDO faced a certain degree of difficulty in demolishing the self-made dwellings as the exact number of street sleepers living in such dwellings was unknown, and hoped that the study on street sleepers could provide the relevant information.

(iv) Members’ views were noted and SSPDO would try its best to optimise DAS.

160. Mr LAI Kah-kit responded that FEHD and the Police carried out joint operations every week to address the problem concerning second-hand electrical appliance recycling operation in the neighbourhood of Hai Tan Street and Yee Kuk Street. The Police would issue warnings to the people concerned and request them to remove the items causing street obstruction before a deadline, or else such items would be removed and seized. The joint operations usually started at 4 p.m. but it had been found recently that the operating time of the recycling activities showed a trend of delaying. FEHD and the Police would review the effectiveness of the operations and consider changing the time of the operations to address the actual situation.

161. Ms Wendy Chau responded that SWD had commissioned ISS-HK to provide torture claimants with in-kind assistance, which included rent allowance, food assistance, etc. Even though no torture claimants reported living underneath the Tung Chau Street Flyover according to the registration information from the organisation, it did not mean that their service targets did not loiter in the said area. If non-refoulement claimants required humanitarian assistance, the organisation would assess their applications and provide assistance to eligible persons.

162. The meeting noted and endorsed the content of the aforesaid report.

Item 6: Any other business

(a) Request for full implementation of community gardens in Sham Shui Po and improvement of recreation and sports facilities – progress report

163. Ms Agnes LEE reported as follows:

(i) As the Community Garden Programme was a learn-and-practise course, it required a certain amount of space to construct various facilities for teaching as well as storage of materials and tools, and at the same time, natural lighting, condition of the drainage system as well as the distance from residences also had to be taken into consideration. Therefore, gardens of smaller sizes (e.g. Lei Cheng Uk Swimming Pool Rest Garden) were not - 49 - Action by suitable for setting up community gardens. As for large parks in the district, they were planted extensively with trees and various recreational and sitting-out facilities being provided inside, leaving no suitable space for setting up community gardens and the relevant facilities. However, if the existing facilities were changed for setting up community gardens, it was believed that such act would trigger responses from members of the public.

(ii) Currently, some space inside Nam Cheong Park was occupied by MTR Corporation Limited (“MTRCL”) for carrying out the construction works on the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link and the works were expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2018. The space concerned would be returned to LCSD after the works had finished. The Department and MTRCL would look into the possibility of setting up a community garden there and report to DC in due course.

164. The Chairman enquired about the possibility of setting up a community garden in Lai Chi Kok Park.

165. Ms Agnes LEE responded that there were 80 gardens and numerous sitting-out facilities in Lai Chi Kok Park at present, no suitable space was available for setting up a community garden.

166. The Chairman thanked the Department for giving the report but expressed disappointment over the study result. He hoped to continue exploring the possibility of setting up community gardens in other parks and DC would continue to follow up on this matter.

(b) Funding applications to DC Committees and Working Groups (SSPDC Papers 168/17 to 186/17)

167. The Chairman said that the committees and working groups under DC had vetted 19 funding applications earlier and asked Members to consider whether to endorse these applications. He reminded Members to make declarations of interests according to the Standing Orders. If a Member disclosed an interest, the Chairman had to decide whether he could speak or vote, could remain in the meeting as an observer, or should withdraw from the meeting.

168. The Chairman continued to say that he received from Mr Dennis WONG and Mr Dominic LEE authorisations in which Mr Vincent Cheng and Mr Leung Man-kwong were appointed respectively to act as their proxy to vote, and reminded the authorised persons to make declarations of interest on behalf of the authorising persons. - 50 - Action by 169. Mr YUEN Hoi-man raised the following views: (i) he suggested that, apart from declaring pecuniary interests, Members should also declare other links; (ii) the Council’s practice of endorsing funding applications by proxy votes was not desirable.

170. The Chairman responded that the existing system allowed Members to vote by proxy. He opined that if a Member made a declaration of interest, then such Member could not speak and vote but might not need to withdraw from the meeting.

171. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu raised the following views: (i) as non-profit organisations that received subsidies were regulated by SWD and they usually have no links with DC Members or committee members, their funding applications could be accepted; (ii) he suggested that the authorised persons made declarations of interest on behalf of the authorising persons first, lest they cast a vote wrongly in the event of the authorising persons and the organisations having links of interest, which might caused injustice or follow-up problems.

172. Mr CHUM Tak-shing enquired how a declaration of interest should be made when the authorising persons were not present.

173. The Chairman responded that the authorised persons must make declarations of interest on behalf of the authorising persons. If there was a conflict of interest between the authorising persons and the organisations making funding applications, the authorised persons could not vote as a proxy.

Paper 168/17

174. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for Sham Shui Po Arts Association Limited (“SSPAAL”) to organise “the 8th Sham Shui Po Performing Arts Showcase” (Paper 168/17) and the amount was $450,000.

175. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu said that, as far as he knew, SSPDO had sent letters to invite the organisations in the district to organise this activity. He opined that such practice was in line with the procedures he requested and therefore had no objection to the funding application.

176. Mr CHUM Tak-shing enquired whether funding applications would be voted on by open ballot.

177. The Chairman said that the organiser of the activity was SSPAAL while the co-organisers were CAC, SSPDO and LCSD, and requested Members to make declarations of interest. - 51 - Action by 178. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu said that according to his record, a Member needed to make a declaration of interest.

179. Mr CHAN Wai-ming said that he did not hold any position in SSPAAL any more in its new term (starting from 1 July 2017).

180. The Chairman said that Members were required to make declarations of interest for the positions they held at the time of vetting of funding applications.

181. Since no Member voted against the funding application or abstained from voting, the Chairman declared that Paper 168/17 was endorsed unanimously by the Members present at the meeting.

Paper 169/17

182. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for United Labour Chi Hong Association Limited (“ULCH”) to organise the “Standard Chartered Marathon 2018 - the District Councils Challenge Cup”. The co-organiser was WGFCP and the amount was $5,200.

183. Mr Aaron LAM declared interests, stating that he was the Consultant of ULCH.

184. Mr LEE Wing-man declared interests, stating that he was the Vice-chairman of ULCH.

185. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu enquired whether WGFCP had openly invited the organisations in the district to apply for organising the activity.

186. Mr LEUNG Man-kwong responded that as no organisation had expressed willingness to organise this activity so far, WGFCP had followed the past practice of consulting members in meetings before agreeing that the activity would be organised by ULCH.

187. The Chairman said that he had resigned as the Consultant of ULCH two weeks ago.

188. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu said that since WGFCP had not openly invited organisations to apply for organising the activity, his requirements were not met. However, in view of the explanation of the Chairman of WGFCP, he might abstain from voting.

189. The Chairman ruled that the above two Members who had declared interests should not speak and vote but did not need to withdraw from the discussion. - 52 - Action by 190. The meeting voted on Paper 169/17 by open ballot.

191. The voting result was as follows:

For: Mr CHAN Kwok-wai, Mr CHAN Wai-ming, Ms Joephy CHAN, Mr Vincent CHENG, Ms LAU Pui-yuk, Mr Dominic LEE (voted by Mr LEUNG Man-kwong as a proxy), Mr LEUNG Man-kwong and Mr Dennis WONG (voted by Mr Vincent CHENG as a proxy) (8)

Against: (0)

Abstain: Ms Zoé CHOW, Mr Ambrose CHEUNG, Mr CHUM Tak-shing, Mr Kalvin HO, Mr KONG Kwai-sang, Mr LEUNG Yau-fong, Ms Carman NG, Ms NG Yuet-lan, Mr TAM Kwok-kiu, Mr WAI Woon-nam, Mr YEUNG Yuk and Mr YUEN Hoi-man (12)

192. The Chairman declared that Paper 169/17 was endorsed.

Paper 170/17

193. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for ULCH to organise the “Flower Market Shuttle Bus” (Paper 170/17). The co-organisers were WGFCP and the Operations Support Sub-Unit of Sham Shui Po Division of HKPF, and the amount was $34,100.

194. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu enquired whether WGFCP had openly invited the organisations in the district to apply for organising the activity.

195. Mr LEUNG Man-kwong responded that as no organisation had expressed willingness to organise this activity, WGFCP had consulted members before agreeing that the activity would be organised by ULCH. WGFCP had not openly issued an invitation letter.

196. Mr Kalvin HO enquired whether WGFCP had issued an open invitation letter

197. Mr LEUNG Man-kwong responded that WGFCP had followed the past practice of inviting members to recommend organisations. However, no recommendation had been received and therefore WGFCP agreed that the activity would be organised by ULCH.

198. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu said that he would abstain from voting. - 53 - Action by 199. Mr Aaron LAM declared interests, stating that he was the Consultant of ULCH.

200. Mr LEE Wing-man declared interests, stating that he was the Vice-chairman of ULCH.

201. The Chairman said that he had resigned as the Consultant of ULCH two weeks ago, and ruled that the above two Members who had declared interests should not speak and vote but did not need to withdraw from the discussion.

202. The meeting voted on Paper 170/17 by open ballot.

203. The voting result was as follows:

For: Mr CHAN Kwok-wai, Mr CHAN Wai-ming, Ms Joephy CHAN, Mr Vincent CHENG, Ms LAU Pui-yuk, Mr Dominic LEE (voted by Mr LEUNG Man-kwong as a proxy), Mr LEUNG Man-kwong and Mr Dennis WONG (voted by Mr Vincent CHENG as a proxy) (8)

Against: (0)

Abstain: Ms Zoé CHOW, Mr Ambrose CHEUNG, Mr CHUM Tak-shing, Mr Kalvin HO, Mr KONG Kwai-sang, Mr LEUNG Yau-fong, Ms Carman NG, Ms NG Yuet-lan, Mr TAM Kwok-kiu, Mr WAI Woon-nam, Mr YEUNG Yuk and Mr YUEN Hoi-man (12)

204. The Secretary announced the voting result: 8 Members voted for the paper, no Members voted against it and 12 Members abstained. The Chairman declared that Paper 170/17 was endorsed.

Paper 171/17

205. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for YMCA of Hong Kong to organise the “Mei Foo Farm Fest” (Paper 171/17). The co-organiser was WGFCP and the amount was $66,000.

206. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu enquired whether WGFCP had openly invited the organisations in the district to apply for organising the activity.

207. Mr LEUNG Man-kwong responded that the aforesaid activity had always been organised by YMCA of Hong Kong and the response had been positive. Therefore, WGFCP agreed that the activity would continue to be organised by that organisation. - 54 - Action by 208. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu expressed disappointment that WGFCP had not openly invited organisations to apply for organising the activity. However, as the organiser was a non-profit organisation receiving subsidies from the Government, which was regulated by SWD and had no link with Members, he would give it his support.

209. Since no Member voted against the funding application or abstained from voting, the Chairman declared that Paper 171/17 was endorsed unanimously by the Members present at the meeting.

Paper 172/17

210. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for Hong Kong Single Parents Association to organise the “Women’s Employment Project” (Paper 172/17) and the amount was $17,600.

211. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu enquired whether WGPPEM had openly invited organisations to apply for organising the activity.

212. Mr CHAN Wai-ming responded that several tens of members of WGPPEM came from the organisations in the district so the working group had sent letters to invite these organisations to apply for the funding offered by the “Funding Scheme for Women’s Development (DC stream)” of the Women’s Commission. Three organisations had expressed interest to participate and therefore WGPPEM approved that the $53,000 subsidy by the Women’s Commission would be divided equally by these three organisations for holding activities.

213. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu said that since WGPPEM had not openly invited organisations to apply for organising the activity, his requirements were not met. However, as Hong Kong Single Parents Association was a non-profit organisation, he would not object to its funding application.

214. Since no Member voted against the funding application or abstained from voting, the Chairman declared that Paper 172/17 was endorsed unanimously by the Members present at the meeting.

Paper 173/17

215. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for Shek Kip Mei Centre of Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong to organise the “Handicrafts．Cultural Continuity” (Paper 173/17) and the amount was $17,667.

216. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu enquired whether WGPPEM had openly invited organisations - 55 - Action by to apply for organising the activity.

217. Mr CHAN Wai-ming responded that the procedures for inviting organisers of this funding application were same as those of Paper 172/17.

218. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu said that the invitation procedures concerned were not desirable. However, as the organiser was a non-profit organisation, he would not object to its funding organisation.

219. Since no Member voted against the funding application or abstained from voting, the Chairman declared that the above funding application was endorsed unanimously by the Members present at the meeting.

Paper 174/17

220. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for Ching Fai Women Association Limited to organise the “Art Skill Learning” (Paper 174/17) and the amount was $17,666.

221. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu enquired whether WGPPEM had openly invited organisations to apply for organising the activity.

222. Mr CHAN Wai-ming responded that the procedures for inviting organisers of this funding application were same as those of Paper 172/17.

223. Ms LAU Pui-yuk declared interests, stating that she did not hold any position in Ching Fai Women Association but that organisation was an affiliated group of Kowloon Women’s Organisations Federation, of which she was the Vice-chairman.

224. Ms Joephy CHAN declared interests, stating that she did not hold any position in Ching Fai Women Association but that organisation was an affiliated group of Kowloon Women’s Organisations Federation, of which she was the Consultant.

225. The Chairman ruled that the above two Members who had declared interests should not speak and vote but did not need to withdraw from the discussion.

226. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu said that as the procedures for inviting organisers of this funding application did not meet his requirements and the organiser was not a non-profit organisation, he objected to the funding application.

227. The meeting voted on Paper 174/17 by open ballot. - 56 - Action by 228. The voting result was as follows:

For: Mr CHAN Kwok-wai, Mr CHAN Wai-ming, Mr Vincent CHENG, Mr Ambrose CHEUNG, Mr Aaron LAM, Mr Dominic LEE (voted by Mr LEUNG Man-kwong as a proxy), Mr LEE Wing-man, Mr LEUNG Man-kwong and Mr Dennis WONG (voted by Mr Vincent CHENG as a proxy) (9)

Against: Ms Zoé CHOW, Mr CHUM Tak-shing, Mr Kalvin HO, Mr KONG Kwai-sang, Mr LEUNG Yau-fong, Ms Carman NG, Ms NG Yuet-lan, Mr TAM Kwok-kiu, Mr WAI Woon-nam, Mr YEUNG Yuk and Mr YUEN Hoi-man (11)

Abstain: (0)

229. The Secretary announced the voting result: 9 Members voted for the paper, 11 Members voted against it and no Members abstained. The Chairman declared that Paper 174/17 was not endorsed.

Paper 175/17

230. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for the Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions (“FHKKLU”) to organise the “Campaign for Promotion of Safety in Working at Height” (Paper 175/17). The co-organiser was WGHSC and the amount was $40,000.

231. Mr LEE Wing-man declared interests, stating that he did not hold any position in FHKKLU but had a political link with that organisation when running for election.

232. The Chairman ruled that the above Member who had declared interests should not speak and vote but did not need to withdraw from the discussion.

233. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu raised the following enquiries: (i) whether WGHSC had openly invited organisations to apply for organising the activity; (ii) whether the finance of FHKKLU, which was a union, was regulated by any government department.

234. Mr LEE Wing-man responded that: (i) the union was registered under the Societies Ordinance, its constitution, financial condition, etc. were monitored by the Registry of Trade Unions; (ii) WGHSC had been following the past practice all along, which was to invite its members’ non-profit organisations to organise activities, and then made decisions using the past experiences and acitivity outcome of the organisers as reference.

235. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu said that the procedures for inviting organisers of this funding - 57 - Action by application did not meet his requirements, but understood that the union was monitored by the Registry of Trade Unions. Taking “the benfit of the doubt” into consideration, he woud therefore abstain from voting.

236. The meeting voted on Paper 175/17 by open ballot.

237. The voting result was as follows:

For: Mr CHAN Kwok-wai, Mr CHAN Wai-ming, Ms Joephy CHAN, Mr Vincent CHENG, Mr Ambrose CHEUNG, Mr Aaron LAM, Ms LAU Pui-yuk, Mr Dominic LEE (voted by Mr LEUNG Man-kwong as a proxy), Mr LEUNG Man-kwong and Mr Dennis WONG (voted by Mr Vincent CHENG as a proxy) (10)

Against: (0)

Abstain: Ms Zoé CHOW, Mr CHUM Tak-shing, Mr Kalvin HO, Mr KONG Kwai-sang, Mr LEUNG Yau-fong, Ms Carman NG, Ms NG Yuet-lan, Mr TAM Kwok-kiu, Mr WAI Woon-nam, Mr YEUNG Yuk and Mr YUEN Hoi-man (11)

238. The Secretary announced the voting result: 10 Members voted for the paper, no Members voted against it and 11 Members abstained. The Chairman declared that Paper 175/17 was endorsed.

Paper 176/17

239. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for Shamshuipo Kaifong Welfare Advancement Association to organise the “Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Handover and the National Day in Sham Shui Po” (Paper 176/17). The co-organisers were WGHSC and Federation of Hong Kong Huangpu Community, and the amount was $265,890.

240. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu raised the following enquiries: (i) whether WGHSC had openly invited organisations to apply for organising the activity; (ii) whether the finance of that organisation was regulated by any government department or relevant legislation.

241. Mr LEE Wing-man responded that WGHSC invited the non-profit organisations its members came from to participate in all of its activities, and decisions would then be made by WGHSC.

242. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu said that the procedures for inviting organisers of this funding application did not meet his requirements, it was also not known that whether the finance - 58 - Action by of that organisation was regulated. In addition, one of the co-organisers, Federation of Hong Kong Huangpu Community, was not an organisation in SSP District. Therefore, he objected to this funding application.

243. The meeting voted on Paper 176/17 by open ballot.

244. The voting result was as follows:

For: Mr CHAN Kwok-wai, Mr CHAN Wai-ming, Ms Joephy CHAN, Mr Vincent CHENG, Mr Ambrose CHEUNG, Mr Aaron LAM, Ms LAU Pui-yuk, Mr Dominic LEE (voted by Mr LEUNG Man-kwong as a proxy), Mr LEE Wing-man, Mr LEUNG Man-kwong and Mr Dennis WONG (voted by Mr Vincent CHENG as a proxy) (11)

Against: Ms Zoé CHOW, Mr CHUM Tak-shing, Mr Kalvin HO, Mr KONG Kwai-sang, Mr LEUNG Yau-fong, Ms Carman NG, Ms NG Yuet-lan, Mr TAM Kwok-kiu, Mr WAI Woon-nam, Mr YEUNG Yuk and Mr YUEN Hoi-man (11)

Abstain: (0)

245. The Secretary announced the voting result: 11 Members voted for the paper, 11 Members voted against it and no Members abstained.

246. The Chairman said that according to the Standing Orders, the Chairman could have a casting vote when the votes for and against the Paper were equal. The Chairman voted for it and declared that Paper 176/17 was endorsed.

247. Mr YUEN Hoi-man said that he regreted that the Chairman voted for the paper when the votes for and against it were equal.

248. The Chairman said that according to the Standing Orders, the Chairman could have a casting vote. He noted the Member’s view.

249. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu agreed that this was the existing mechanism but opined that allowing the Members who were not present at the meeting to authorise others as proxys to vote on their behalf was an unjust practice. He had submitted a paper in this regard before and hoped that the Chairman would consider it seriously.

250. The Chairman noted the view.

- 59 - Action by Paper 177/17

251. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for Caritas Cheng Shing Fung District Elderly Centre (Shamshuipo) (“Cheng Shing Fung Centre”) to organise the “Helicobater Pylori Test Scheme 2017” (Paper 177/17). The co-organisers were WGHSC, the Neighbourhood Advice-Action Council Shamshuipo District Elderly Community Centre (“DEC Centre”), Ho Kin District Community Centre for Senior Citizens (Sponsored by Sik Sik Yuen) (“Ho Kin Centre”), CMC and Community Rehabilitation Network (“Rehabilitation Network”) of the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation, and the amount was $155,000.

252. Mr CHAN Wai-ming said that he was a member of CMC Hospital Governing Committee.

253. The Chairman said that the aforesaid was a provision of information instead of a declaration of interest, so there was no need to make a ruiling

254. Since no Member voted against the funding application or abstained from voting, the Chairman declared that Paper 177/17 was endorsed unanimously by the Members present at the meeting.

Paper 178/17

255. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for Cheng Shing Fung Centre to organise the “Cross-generation Harmony in Sham Shui Po - Sham Shui Po West” (Paper 178/17). The co-organiser was WGHSC and the amount was $100,000.

256. Since no Member voted against the funding application or abstained from voting, the Chairman declared that Paper 178/17 was endorsed unanimously by the Members present at the meeting.

Paper 179/17

257. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for Nam Cheong Care Society to organise the “Health Promotion Campaign for the Elderly” (Paper 179/17). The co-organiser was WGHSC and the amount was $308,538.

258. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu raised the following enquiries: (i) whether WGHSC had openly invited organisations to apply for organising the activity; (ii) whether the finance of that organisation was regulated by any government department or relevant legislation.

259. Mr LEE Wing-man responded as follows: (i) WGHSC had invited the non-profit - 60 - Action by organisations its members came from to participate in the activity, and had already discussed and endorsed the application concerned; (ii) the organiser was registered under the Societies Ordinance and operated following the said ordinance.

260. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu said that the procedures for inviting organisers of this funding application did not meet his requirements, and the finance of the organisations registered under the Societies Ordinance was not subject to regulation. Therefore, he objected to this funding application.

261. The meeting voted on Paper 179/17 by open ballot.

262. The voting result was as follows:

For: Mr CHAN Kwok-wai, Mr CHAN Wai-ming, Ms Joephy CHAN, Mr Vincent CHENG, Mr Ambrose CHEUNG, Mr Aaron LAM, Ms LAU Pui-yuk, Mr Dominic LEE (voted by Mr LEUNG Man-kwong as a proxy), Mr LEE Wing-man, Mr LEUNG Man-kwong and Mr Dennis WONG (voted by Mr Vincent CHENG as a proxy) (11)

Against: Ms Zoé CHOW, Mr CHUM Tak-shing, Mr Kalvin HO, Mr KONG Kwai-sang, Mr LEUNG Yau-fong, Ms Carman NG, Ms NG Yuet-lan, Mr TAM Kwok-kiu, Mr WAI Woon-nam, Mr YEUNG Yuk and Mr YUEN Hoi-man (11)

Abstain: (0)

263. The Secretary announced the voting result: 11 Members voted for the paper, 11 Members voted against it and no Members abstained.

264. The Chairman said that according to the Standing Orders, the Chairman could have a casting vote when the votes for and against the Paper were equal. The Chairman voted for it and declared that Paper 179/17 was endorsed.

265. Mr LEUNG Yau-fong said that although the Chairman could have a casting vote when the votes for and against the Paper were equal, he expressed regret at and dissatisfaction with such practice.

266. The Chairman noted the view.

Paper 180/17 - 61 - Action by 267. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for DEC Centre to organise the “Cross-generation Harmony in Sham Shui Po - Sham Shui Po East” (Paper 180/17). The co-organiser was WGHSC and the amount was $100,000.

268. Since no Member voted against the funding application or abstained from voting, the Chairman declared that Paper 180/17 was endorsed unanimously by the Members present at the meeting.

Paper 181/17

269. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for Ho Kin Centre to organise the “Living Well and Safeguard Your Well Being in Sham Shui Po – Community Health Promotion Scheme (2017)” (Paper 181/17). The co-organisers were WGHSC, CMC, Rehabilitation Network, Cheng Shing Fung Centre, DEC Centre and the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care of KW Cluster under HA, and the amount was $143,695.

270. The Chairman said that Mr CHAN Wai-ming was a member of CMC Hospital Governing Committee and therefore ruled that he should not speak and vote but did not need to withdraw from the discussion.

271. Since no Member voted against the funding application or abstained from voting, the Chairman declared that Paper 181/17 was endorsed unanimously by the Members present meeting, excluding Mr CHAN Wai-ming who should not vote on it.

Paper 182/17

272. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for Ho Kin Centre to organise the “Treasure Your Health, Measure Your Blood Pressure 2017” (Paper 182/17). The co-organisers were WGHSC, CMC, Rehabilitation Network, Cheng Shing Fung Centre, DEC Centre and the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care of KW Cluster under HA, and the amount was $205,461.

273. Mr CHAN Wai-ming declared interest, stating that he was a member of CMC Hospital Governing Committee.

274. The Chairman ruled that the above Member who had declared interests should not speak and vote but did not need to withdraw from the discussion.

275. Since no Member voted against the funding application or abstained from voting, the Chairman declared that Paper 182/17 was endorsed unanimously by the Members present at the meeting, excluding Mr CHAN Wai-ming who should not vote on it. - 62 - Action by Paper 183/17

276. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for Ho Kin Centre to organise the “Treasure Your Health, Measure Your Blood Pressure - Purchase Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor 2017” (Paper 183/17). The co-organisers were WGHSC, CMC, Rehabilitation Network, Cheng Shing Fung Centre, DEC Centre and the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care of KW Cluster under HA, and the amount was $70,785.

277. The Chairman said that Mr CHAN Wai-ming was a member of CMC Hospital Governing Committee and therefore ruled that he should not speak and vote but did not need to withdraw from the discussion.

278. Since no Member voted against the funding application or abstained from voting, the Chairman declared that Paper 183/17 was endorsed unanimously by the Members present at the meeting, excluding Mr CHAN Wai-ming who should not vote on it.

Paper 184/17

279. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for Ho Kin Centre to organise the “Healthy and Safe Community Publication” (Paper 184/17). The co-organisers were WGHSC, CMC, Rehabilitation Network, Cheng Shing Fung Centre, DEC Centre and the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care of KW Cluster under HA, and the amount was $100,000.

280. The Chairman said that Mr CHAN Wai-ming was a member of CMC Hospital Governing Committee and therefore ruled that he should not speak and vote but did not need to withdraw from the discussion.

281. Since no Member voted against the funding application or abstained from voting, the Chairman declared that Paper 184/17 was endorsed unanimously by the Members present at the meeting, excluding Mr CHAN Wai-ming who should not vote on it.

Paper 185/17

282. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for Ho Kin Centre to organise the “Cross-generation Harmony in Sham Shui Po - Sham Shui Po Central” (Paper 185/17). The co-organiser was WGHSC and the amount was $100,000.

283. Since no Member voted against the funding application or abstained from voting, the Chairman declared that Paper 185/17 was endorsed unanimously by the Members present at the meeting. - 63 - Action by Paper 186/17

284. The Chairman asked Members to consider the funding application for Sham Shui Po Residents Association (“SSPRA”) to organise the “Carnival in Celebration of the 68th National Day” (Paper 186/17). The co-organiser was WGHSC and the amount was $59,400.

285. Mr CHAN Wai-ming declared interests, stating that he was the Vice-chairman of SSPRA.

286. Mr Vincent CHENG declared interests on behalf of Mr Dennis WONG, stating that he was the Vice-chairman of SSPRA.

287. Mr Aaron LAM declared interests, stating that he was the Vice-president of SSPRA.

288. Ms LAU Pui-yuk declared interests, stating that she was the Officer of SSPRA.

289. Mr CHAN Kwok-wai declared interests, stating that he was the Officer of SSPRA.

290. Mr LEUNG Man-kwong declared interests, stating that he was the Vice-chairman of SSPRA.

291. The Chairman ruled that the above six Members who had declared interests should not speak and vote but did not need to withdraw from the discussion.

292. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu raised the following enquiries: (i) whether WGFCP had openly invited organisations to apply for organising the activity; (ii) whether the finance of that organisation was regulated by any government department or relevant legislation.

293. Mr LEUNG Man-kwong responded that this activity had always been organised by that organisation in the past and the response had been positive. Therefore, the activity continued to be organised by that organisation.

294. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu said that he would vote against it.

295. The meeting voted on Paper 186/17 by open ballot.

296. The voting result was as follows:

- 64 - Action by For: Mr Vincent CHENG, Mr Ambrose CHEUNG, Mr Dominic LEE (voted by Mr LEUNG Man-kwong as a proxy) and Mr LEE Wing-man (4)

Against: Ms Zoé CHOW, Mr CHUM Tak-shing, Mr Kalvin HO, Mr KONG Kwai-sang, Mr LEUNG Yau-fong, Ms Carman NG, Ms NG Yuet-lan, Mr TAM Kwok-kiu, Mr WAI Woon-nam, Mr YEUNG Yuk and Mr YUEN Hoi-man (11)

Abstain: (0)

297. The Secretary announced the voting result: 4 Members voted for the paper, 11 Members voted against it and no Members abstained. The Chairman declared that Paper 186/17 was not endorsed.

(c) Other

298. Mr TAM Kwok-kiu said that there was no “Matters arising” in the agenda of this meeting so it was not possible to follow up on the matters discussed in the last meeting and the follow-up actions of the relevant departments.

299. The Chairman responded that some of the matters were followed up on by the relevant committees and working groups, and he would arranged for the matters to be discussed under “Any other business” if necessary. He noted the view and said that the meeting could continue to discuss the matters concerned if necessary.

300. The Chairman continued to say that in celebration of the 68th National Day, WGFCP under SSPDC would hold a cocktail reception to share joy with local residents at Wonder Land Seafood Restaurant in Shek Kip Mei on 22 September 2017 (Friday), starting at 3 p.m. The ceremony would start at 3:30 p.m., Members and representatives of government departments were welcome to attend.

Item 7: Date of next meeting

301. The next meeting would be held at 9:30 a.m. on 7 November 2017 (Tuesday).

302. There being no other business, the meeting ended at 7:20 p.m.

District Council Secretariat Sham Shui Po District Office November 2017