150
HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
At the end of 1957 a Report on Hawkers (with policy recom- mendations) was published as a result of the efforts of a combined Police and Urban Services' liaison team, in an endeavour to seek a solution to the hawker problem. The major recommendation was for the formation of a disciplined body within the Urban Services Department to exercise effective control over hawkers. This report was accepted by the Government, and detailed planning put in hand for the recruitment, training, and discipline of personnel for this new section.
Various new methods of hawker control were tried out, the object being to bring hawkers of all kinds and classes into line with the law without depriving anyone of an honest means of earning a living. These control methods, together with special arrangements for night scavenging in the worst hawker areas, brought about a great improvement in general conditions and, in some cases, eliminated complete squatter colonies living in the middle of streets and on fixed pitch sites.
The results of a hawker control operation which took place in January in the neighbourhood of Sham Shui Po Market were very successful and, for the first time for many months, both market stallholders and hawkers were able to do their fair share of business, while trading practically side by side. Some in fact had their business increased to quite an appreciable extent.
In Resettlement Estates hawker control work was not neglected. Yet another method of resiting hawkers was tried out in Tai Hang Tung Resettlement Estate where no less than 400 hawkers were allocated, by ballot, properly constructed stalls from which to sell their produce. Similar arrangements were made in Shek Kip Mei and planned for other Resettlement Estates. Normally, the ballot- ting for these sites is carried out daily.
Perhaps the most successful of all these cleaning-up operations was the one which took place in September in Stanley Street, Hong Kong. Noted for its cooked food stalls, this street was littered with tables, chairs, utensils, and other paraphernalia belonging to the stallholders. Congestion was further aggravated by the use of the street for food preparation and food service. A thorough cleaning-up operation in the street and its surrounding area transformed the situation, confining the scope of the cooked