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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
CHAIRMAN:- I agree that the removal of rubbish will be in the interest of the market but I do not see that the chicken crates are particularly in evidence over there.
DR. LEE:- I suggest, Mr. Chairman, that you might visit this market at your leisure and you will see what I am talking about in my supplementary question.
DR. R. H. S. LEE asked the following question :—
"Can consideration be given to a scheme whereby building refuse on the western side of Tsimshatsui Market be removed, and the area behind the cooked food stalls be repaved, and does the Chairman consider this will increase the tidiness of the site and thus make it easier to keep clean?"
THE CHAIRMAN tabled the following written reply:
"No builders refuse has been found near the Market but some earth, which was eroded from an adjacent bank, has now been removed.
I agree that repaving the area behind the cooked food stalls will bring about an improvement, and the Public Works Department has been asked to put this in hand.”
MR. A. DE O. SALES asked the following question :-
"Will the Chairman please inform this Council how many market areas are now subject to the new system of control? How many were brought under this system in February, March and April?"
THE CHAIRMAN tabled the following written reply:-
"I would first refer you to the answer to your question No. 3 on the agenda at the last Council Meeting. Between the Council Meetings on 4th February and 4th March, 1958, no hawker operation was carried out in the neighbourhood of any market, but one hawker operation was carried out in the Tai Hang Tung Resettlement Estate as described in the Monthly Report for March. No further hawker operation was undertaken in April. The total number of market areas where control exists is thus three."
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MR. A. DE O. SALES asked the following questions :-
"At the Council Meeting in October 1957, I put a question about the dirty and difficult conditions in the Nga Tsin Wai Road and its vicinity, may I please have a report on what improvements have been made in the interval?"
"At the Annual Debate last month, I drew the Council's attention in particular to the dreadful conditions obtaining in that area and I said in fact that to tolerate them would be to fail in our duty to uphold the rights of the citizens to decent living conditions, so what plans are there for restoring conditions to normal? How soon will action be taken ?"
THE CHAIRMAN tabled the following written reply :-
"I should like in answering these questions to go perhaps a little further than is strictly necessary in view of public interest in this matter. Conditions of congestion in the vicinity of not only Kowloon City Market but round practically all major markets are far from satisfactory. The reasons for this and proposals for alleviating the congestion are fully set out in the Hawker Report, paragraphs 11-23.
It is my opinion that nothing short of a major hawker operation will do anything noticeable to improve conditions in and round Kowloon City Market or any of the other large urban markets. For the time being there can thus be no change in the status quo. The streets round Shamshuipo Market were a good deal worse than any area in Kowloon City and I have no reason to suppose that a large hawker operation would not be as successful in Kowloon City as it was in Shamshuipo. The eventual removal of the temporary fences in Nga Tsin Wai Road erected for the airport contractors will cut out the dust nuisance. In the meantime, the contractors are spraying the road five times a day on dry days. The removal of the fences, which is a matter outside Council control, will make more room to contain all the activities near the market but the root of the trouble is the disorderly manner in which hawkers trade.
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