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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
(24) MR. H. M. G. FORSGATE asked the following question:-
Ngau Tau Kok Resettlement Estate-Hawkers
(a) When are the 600 or more Hawkers crowding into the area behind No. 2 Block in Ngau Tau Kok Estate going to be re-assembled into an orderly Hawker Bazaar in the Estate?
(b) Is such a large number of Hawkers desirable in one area?
(c) Why does the Resettlement Estate staff allow them to clog up the entrance to No. 2 Block with stalls, baskets, etc., to the extreme discomfort of those living in that block?
(d) Why, in this supposedly hawker-free Estate, is the present state of affairs allowed to continue in apparent defiance of the law?
MR. B. A. BERNACCHI, CHAIRMAN OF THE HAWKERS SELECT COMMITTEE replied as follows:
This question concerns hawkers in the Ngau Tau Kok Resettlement Estate.
The answer to the first part of your question is that no definite date can be given for the formation of an orderly hawker bazaar in this Estate since this depends on the availability of staff to control the bazaar once it has been formed and to prevent other hawkers from trading in the prohibited areas. Members are aware that the Hawker Control Force can only cover a small part of the urban area with its existing strength and at the present rate of expansion it may be several years before the Force can take over the responsibility for the Ngau Tau Kok Resettlement Estate. The Council is pressing the Government, i.e. the Colonial Secretary both to give more favourable terms (I suppose also the Financial Secretary) of service to the Hawker Control Force and to accept the principle of its expansion to a size that can control, at least, all hawker bazaars envisaged for the next few years.
The answer to the second part of your question is that in general large uncontrolled concentrations of hawkers are undesirable from the point of view both of the general public and of the hawkers themselves. Indeed even in control areas, where suitable sites are available, it is better to have small bazaars spaced out widely. Once again, however, the formation and operation of such bazaars depends on the availability of adequate control on the ground.
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The answer to the third part of your question is that hawker control work is not the normal function of the Resettlement Estate staff and that such action as it has been possible to take has been intermittent and largely ineffective. The solution to the problem, as in the case of the other questions which were asked to-day, would appear to be the provision of an adequate Hawker Control Force and that without it residents of the Estate will continue to be inconvenienced by disorderly hawking.
The answer to the last part of your question is that the Ngau Tau Kok Resettlement Estate, with the exception of three areas reserved for hawker bazaars, was declared to be a prohibited area for hawkers in the expectation that the Police would be able to provide the control necessary to enforce them. The Police, however, have not been able to provide men for hawker control work on a permanent basis and the hawker situation has deteriorated to the same level as in the majority of other estates where hawking is not prohibited. Since the Hawker Control Force will not be able to provide staff for this Estate in the near future it seems that it may be necessary to withdraw the prohibition on hawking in the Estate which is clearly unenforceable at present. I intend to have this matter discussed in the Select Committee.
MR. FORSGATE:-Mr. Chairman, in view of the fact that since posing this question and receiving MR. BERNACCHI's answer I read an inter-department report between the various departments and the Police on the very problem, I suggest this whole question be referred to either the Resettlement Policy Select Committee in conjunction with the Hawkers Select Committee or possibly a joint meeting of the two Committees to consider the whole question which is a very very vital one.
MR. BERNACCHI:-Personally, I should welcome it.
(Messrs. B. A. BERNACCHI, H. M. G. FORSGATE, Peter P. K. NG and D. J. R. BLAKER left the meeting at this point).
MOTIONS.
CHAIRMAN:-In turning to item 4 on the agenda, Motions, I would like to draw Members' attention to the wording of the first Motion. MR. CHEONG-LEEN, with my permission, made certain amendments to his original Motion after the Agenda had been circulated to Members. The revised Motion may not have reached them before this meeting.
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