Provisional Urban Council

The Provisional Urban Council is responsible for providing municipal
services to about 3.4 million people in the urban areas, representing 53
percent of the population. The council plays a key role in safeguarding
environmental hygiene and public health as well as providing cultural
services and venues and recreational facilities and programmes.

The council comprises 50 appointed councillors. It holds formal public
meetings once a month to pass by-laws and deal with financial matters,
formal motions and questions on its activities.

The Standing Committee of the Whole Council meets twice monthly to
conduct the council's routine business, while its 14 select committees,
generally meet at least once a month. There are also more than 30
subcommittees and working groups which handle specific issues. All
council meetings are open to the public, except for sensitive items which
must be discussed in private.

The Director of Urban Services is the council's chief executive, as well as
the head of the Urban Services Department. The department is the largest
civilian department within the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Government structure with a staff of about 17 000. The responsibilities of
the director include directing and forward planning for all aspects of the
department's work, as well as formulating policy proposals for
consideration by the Provisional Urban Council. The agreed policies are
then implemented by the department as the executive arm of the council.

The council is financially autonomous and spent $6.785 billion on
recurrent activities and capital works projects in 1996-97. A share of the
rates forms about 80 per cent of the council's income, with the balance
coming from licence fees and other charges.

The council has ward offices throughout the urban areas, where
councillors meet the public and advise on a wide variety of matters. Urban
residents may also make their views known through the Members' Duty
Roster System, whereby councillors are placed on a duty roster to meet
the public, by appointment, twice a week.

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