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estates.
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The activities provided include picnics, and swimming and camping excursions, and this year will cater for upwards of 65,000 children.
MR. HU-Mr. Chairman, the activities of such sort are to be commended, but the real aim of my asking this question is that I wish that the relevant department should look into the real benefits that youth receive from these organizations. I wish, Mr. Chairman, that you could kindly convey my view to the relevant departments and voluntary agencies.
CHAIRMAN: I wonder, could you restate what you have asked Mr. Hu?
MR. HU:-In my question, Mr. Chairman, I did ask what kind of youths frequent these organizations? I did not think that this question was answered in your reply.
CHAIRMAN:-I shall pass your request to the Commissioner for Resettlement.
MR. HU: Also, I wish to know how many young people really benefit from these activities?
CHAIRMAN: --Is this not included in the answer Mr. Hu? I said this year the programme will cater for upwards of 65,000 children.
MR. HU:-Mr. Chairman, you say "children", but my question asked about "young people". (Laughter).
CHAIRMAN:-I take your point, Mr. Hu.
(4) MR. HILTON CHEONG-LEEN asked the following question:
I understand that the proposed Wong Tai Sin market will take three years to complete; as the Wong Tai Sin Kaifong Association has indicated that they would be prepared to assist Government by building a temporary market to accommodate the 600 hawkers in the area, could the Director of Urban Services consider this proposal and discuss it further with the Wong Tai Sin Kaifong Association?
THE CHAIRMAN, URBAN COUNCIL, replied as follows:-
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This question concerns the proposed Wong Tai Sin Market. In February 1967, the Chairman of the Wong Tai Sin Kai Fong Welfare Association wrote to the Chairman of the Urban Council, asking Government to build a market in the Wong Tai Sin Resettlement Estate. He also suggested that, if Government did not wish to construct one, his Association would be prepared to put up a three-storey building at a cost of $250,000. This building would provide market stalls on the ground floor, a canteen on the first floor and food preparation space on the upper floor. The Markets Select Committee, after considering this proposal at a meeting on 6th April, 1967, agreed to recommend that Government should be responsible for the construction of the new market; and that an appropriate item should be included in the Public Works Programme. This recommendation was subsequently accepted, and appears as an item in Category B of the Public Works Programme. This market is, however, only 8th in priority after a number of other markets which, the Markets Select Committee has decided need to be built or rebuilt more urgently to meet the needs of particular districts. This means that it will be at least three years before the Wong Tai Sin Market can be completed, and probably longer.
Under the Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance, Section 79(3), only the Government may run a market in the urban area and, in view of the heavy cost of constructing markets (particularly where this takes the form of a multi-storey building) and the need to maintain adequate standards of cleanliness in them, this is a policy which, I believe, should be retained.
The site for the proposed market is now occupied by a dense concentration of hawker stalls and squatter shops and huts, all of which will have to be removed and resited elsewhere temporarily or otherwise before a market can be built. It is estimated that the total number of hawkers and squatters in this area is 367, so that their resiting will be a major undertaking.
Whilst the Wong Tai Sin Kai Fong Welfare Association is to be congratulated on its public-spirited offer to build a temporary market, I fear that it is not the right answer to the problem, involving, as it does, the removal of the hawkers and squatters from the site, followed by the construction of a temporary market and allocation of sites to the hawkers, followed by the further removal of the hawkers to enable the temporary market to be demolished and a permanent one built. Also, it is very doubtful whether the heavy expense in which the Kai Fong Welfare Association would be involved is justified.