HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MR. LOBO:-I have answered that I am hoping to have this market upgraded to Category 'B' and if I may elaborate, Category 'C' means projects conforming with approved policy or which are otherwise agreed to merit adoption and which may be expected to enter Category 'B' within the next three years. Category 'B' means projects, the planning of which has commenced or may commence during the current year.
MR. HU:-So, is it correct to say that if it is in Category 'B' we may have it in three years?
MR. LOBO:-Yes.
MR. HU:-And in Category 'C' we shall wait for another five years.
MR. LOBO: Possibly so.
MR. SALES: Mr. Chairman, is it not a fact that the Aberdeen market would have been replaced had the original programme for the re-provisioning of old markets been followed, when it was decided that two markets would be re-built each year?
CHAIRMAN: This is possible, but I think there has been some slight delay in the Hawkers and Markets Division in planning the market programme over the years, Mr. SALES.
MR. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, is it not a fact that the Council adopted a policy for the re-building of old markets? And, was this policy set aside with the consent of the Council?
CHAIRMAN: -Not that I am aware of, Mr. SALES. There has always been a policy to re-provision markets, as far as I am aware, except in resettlement estates. Certainly, at one stage, there was some doubt about building new markets in newly developing areas or in areas where they were not already.
MR. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, I was chairman of the Markets Select Committee, and I can state categorically that there was such a programme.
MR. BERNACCHI:-Is not my friend, Mr. SALES, mixing up “re-building" with "new" markets?
MR. SALES: Not necessarily, Mr. Chairman. Now that Mr. BERNACCHI has made the point, I would like to record that the programme for the re-building of markets and the construction of new markets was perhaps set aside when Mr. BERNACCHI absorbed the markets into the Hawker Select Committee. (Laughter).
MR. BERNACCHI:-No, it was set aside when a member, not now on the Council, was Chairman of the Markets Select Committee, but that is another matter. Mr. Chairman, in 1912 was Aberdeen a small village? (Laughter). Then, next supplementary, so that the Chairman of the Markets Select Committee's answer means in effect that the town of Aberdeen has still the market of a small village?
MR. LOBO:-It is so, but the Department is negotiating with the Crown Lands & Survey Office for a site in the Wong Chuk Hang area for a possible market if necessary, but this is only at the negotiating stage.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, how dilapidated is the present building which was built in 1912?
MR. LOBO: The market is not as dilapidated as many others. The market is an old one, but it is serving its purpose, and the area in Aberdeen is completely surrounded by hawkers and other traders, but the market is a relatively good one.
MR. Hu:—Mr. Chairman, may I ask one supplementary? Were our efforts to build the markets only revived about three years ago?
CHAIRMAN: -Would you repeat that question, Mr. Hu?
MR. HU:-Were our efforts to build the markets only revived about three years ago, before then we really did not think it would be necessary to build the market?
CHAIRMAN:-No, Mr. Hu, there has been a re-provisioning programme on the stocks for years.
MR. SALES: --I would like to elaborate on your answer, if I may, with your permission. Mr. Hu is right in his assumption. Three years or so ago when the Appointed Members took back the Chairmanship of the Markets Select Committee, the programme was revived and resurrected. It had been absorbed into the hawker empire. (Laughter).
MR. HU-I did speak in an Annual Debate about the importance of markets to solve the hawker problem, and since then I think Mr. Wilfred WONG took the Chairmanship. I think then the efforts were revived to build markets. Is this correct?
MR. SALES: Mr. Chairman, there can be no argument against facts. The minutes of the Markets Select Committee will attest to what I have said.
(8) MR. HENRY H. L. Hu asked the following question:
What role does the Department play with regard to education, hygiene, medical and social welfare matters in Resettlement Estates?
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