(Translation) Minutes of the 3rd Meeting of the 5th Wan Chai District Council Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Date: 22 March 2016 (Tuesday) Time: 2:30 p.m. Venue: District Council Conference Room, Wan Chai District Office, 21/F Southorn Centre, 130 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai, H.K. Present Chairperson Mr NG Kam-chun, Stephen, BBS, MH, JP Vice-Chairperson Dr CHOW Kit-bing, Jennifer, BBS, MH Members Ms NG Yuen-ting, Yolanda, MH Ms LEE Kwun-yee, Kenny Ms LEE Pik-yee, Peggy Mr LAM Wai-man, Wind, Anson Miss YEUNG Suet-ying, Clarisse Mr CHENG Ki-kin The Hon TSE Wai-chun, Paul, JP Ms CHUNG Ka-man, Jacqueline Representatives of Core Government Departments Mr CHAN Tin-chu, Rick, JP District Officer (Wan Chai), Home Affairs Department Ms LAI Wai-yee, Renie Assistant District Officer (Wan Chai), Home Affairs Department Ms CHAN Siu-ping, Daphne Senior Liaison Officer (Community Affairs), Home Affairs Department Ms WU Lai-shan, Alexandra Senior Executive Officer (District Council)/Wan Chai (Designate), Home Affairs Department Mr MAK Chin-ho District Commander (Wan Chai), Hong Kong Police Force Ms Dorothy NIEH Police Community Relation Officer (Wan Chai District), Hong Kong Police Force Mr CHAN Kwan-chun Neighbourhood Police Co-ordinator, Eastern District Police Community Relations Office, Hong Kong Police Force Ms LAM Yee-mui, Vivian Assistant District Social Welfare Officer (Eastern/Wan Chai) 2, Social Welfare Department Mr KWOK Kin-man, Alex Senior Estate Surveyor/Land Control and Lease Enforcement 1 (District Lands Office/Hong Kong East, West and South), Lands Department Mr LEE Man-ho Chief Transport Officer/Hong Kong, Transport Department Mr LAM Chi-keung Chief Engineer/Hong Kong (2), Civil Engineering and Development Department Ms YEUNG Yuet-ngor, District Leisure Manager (Wan Chai), Leisure and Cultural Brenda Services Department Mr LAU Chi-keung District Environmental Hygiene Superintendent (Wan Chai), Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Absent with Apologies Mr LEE Man-lung, Joey Mr WONG Wang-tai, Ivan, MH Dr TANG King-yung, Anna, BBS, MH Secretary Mr CHUK Chi-keung, Vincent Senior Executive Officer (District Council)/Wan Chai, Home Affairs Department Action Opening Remarks 1. The Chairperson welcomed Mr Rick CHAN, the new District Officer (Wan Chai) (DO(WC)), and Mr LAU Chi-keung, the new District Environmental Hygiene Superintendent (Wan Chai) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), who attended a meeting of the Wan Chai District Council (WCDC) for the first time. He also welcomed Mr Alex KWOK, Senior Estate Surveyor/Land Control and Lease Enforcement (District Lands Office/Hong Kong East, West and South) of the Lands Department; Mr CHAN Kwan-chun, Neighbourhood Police Co-ordinator, Eastern District Police Community Relations Office of the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF); and Ms Vivian LAM, Assistant District Social Welfare Officer (Eastern/Wan Chai)2 of the Social Welfare Department, who stood in for Mr PANG Kwan-leung, Vincent, Mr KU Siu-fai and Mr NGAN Man-por respectively. The Chairperson informed the participants that before the meeting, Dr Anna TANG, Mr Joey LEE, and Mr Ivan WONG, had notified the Secretariat about their applications for absence due to other commitments. According to Order 51(1) of the WCDC Standing Orders, WCDC would only accept Members’ applications for absence due to sickness or attendance at an activity on behalf of WCDC. Therefore, their applications on this occasion would be regarded as absence from meeting. Besides, Mr Simon LIU, Chief Leisure Manager (Hong Kong East) of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), was unable to attend this meeting due to other official commitments. 2. The Chairperson asked Members to note the papers on the 2 Action conference table and the suggested discussion time. Besides, he said that a maximum of three minutes were allowed for each Member to speak in respect of each agenda item. Confirmation of Minutes of Meeting Item 1: Confirmation of Minutes of the 1st and 2nd Meetings of WCDC 3. The Chairperson indicated that before the meeting, the Secretariat had received the amendments proposed by the HKPF representative and Ms Yolanda NG, to the minutes of the 2nd meeting, which were set out in Appendices A and B for Members’ perusal. As no further amendments were proposed by Members at the meeting, the minutes of the 1st and 2nd WCDC meetings were confirmed by means of a motion moved by Dr Jennifer CHOW and seconded by Ms Kenny LEE. Discussion Items Item 2: District-led Actions Scheme (WCDC Paper No. 48/2016) 4. The Chairperson asked Members to refer to Paper No. 48/2016 and briefly introduce the key points as follows: (i) With consideration given to the views of WCDC and the relevant government departments, there were in general two major initiatives, namely environmental hygiene and support to “three nil” buildings, covered in the District-led Actions Scheme (DAS) to be implemented this year. (ii) On environmental hygiene, the Wan Chai District Office (WCDO) and FEHD had discussed the locations and views offered by Members. All the suggested locations, except certain private lanes, were covered in DAS for this year. FEHD would use DAS resources to tackle the black spots on the action checklist for environmental hygiene black spots compiled by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Committee (FEHC) under WCDC. The suggested locations and black spot locations were set out in the attachment. (iii) On support to “three nil” buildings, WCDO would engage cleansing contractors to provide one-off cleansing services in the public areas of some 100 eligible buildings after 3 Action taking into account Members’ information and comments on buildings and the conditions (factors including the rateable value, types and ages of buildings) of other “three nil” buildings in the district. 5. The Chairperson asked DO(WC) if he had anything to add. 6. DO(WC) thanked Members for their information and suggestions on the priorities of the initiatives and locations. WCDO would take active follow-up actions accordingly. On “three nil” buildings, taking into account the relevant information, WCDO planned to provide one-off cleansing services for some 100 buildings. DO(WC) said that the one-off cleansing services could hardly be a permanent cure to the problems and WCDO would therefore continue assigning staff to visit the “three nil” buildings to assist them in forming owners’ corporations (OCs). The District Management Committee would regularly report to WCDC on the progress of work. 7. The Chairperson invited comments from Members. 8. Dr Jennifer CHOW said that many buildings in the district claimed to have formed OCs, but these OCs might have actually ceased to operate or exist after the completion of building maintenance works or due to some special circumstances. In case of any management problems with these buildings, the residents there had nowhere to turn to for help. She hoped departments would check again whether the existing buildings still had their OCs in place or had already reverted to “three nil” buildings. 9. Ms Peggy LEE said that at a discussion on the use of this dedicated funding, WCDC had proposed it be used to tackle problems that could hardly be solved with the existing resources, which included the hygiene problems in private streets. While understanding that there were priorities for work, she hoped departments could address the perennial unresolved hygiene problems in private streets if there were spare resources after the cleansing work for the suggested locations. The suggested private streets covered in DAS were mainly located in remote places and fell within the land boundaries of tenement buildings with OCs but without management companies. She hoped that DO(WC) or FEHD could consider, in light of specific circumstances, addressing certain private lanes with exceptionally poor hygiene conditions after the cleansing works for the streets on the list was completed. 10. Ms Yolanda NG agreed that DAS should focus on tackling problems that could hardly be solved under the existing system. She 4 Action pointed out that some old buildings were poorly managed as their OCs had ceased to operate or might even be manipulated by developers which had acquired units in the buildings in a bid to take renewal advantage. She believed that WCDO had the relevant information. The roofs of some buildings were piled with miscellaneous objects such as furniture and mattresses. In her view, it was against the spirit of DAS if the dedicated funding was not used to solve hygiene problems in private streets or tenement buildings with inoperative OCs. 11. Miss Clarisse YEUNG indicated that while the usual practice of FEHD was to step up efforts in street cleansing, refuse collection or so forth, it was not necessary for DAS to follow the established practice. In addition to cleansing work, long-term strategic measures should be devised to tackle hygiene black spots, otherwise the efforts could hardly be sustained after the one-off funding was used up. 12. The Chairperson invited responses from the FEHD representative. 13. Mr LAU Chi-keung responded that bound by its terms of reference, FEHD could hardly provide cleansing services for all streets. On the issue concerning private streets, FEHD would render assistance as far as possible in light of circumstances. 14. DO(WC) indicated that DAS was currently at its early stage and WCDO would consider, in light of the progress of work and the usage of the funding, whether it was possible to cover private streets under DAS. (Post-meeting note: After discussion with FEHD, WCDO decided to reallocate the existing resources so that the private streets suggested by Members would be covered under the environmental hygiene initiative of DAS for this year.) 15. The Chairperson concluded by saying that Members hoped this funding could serve as extra resources for solving not only existing problems but also some perennial, major and thorny conundrums in the district, such as hygiene problems in private streets and “three nil” buildings.