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Ngau Tau Kok is completed, so that we have some idea of the densities of the families left in those central Estates and also the situation at the other three older Estates which I think is still very bad.
COMMISSIONER for Resettlement:-Yes, Mr. Chairman, I would be glad to.
(2) MRS. E. ELLIOTT asked the following question:
(a) When pedlar hawkers were cleared from Sai Yeung Choi Street, Tung Choi Street, and other streets in the "black-spot" in Mong Kok, were they offered alternative hawking sites?
(b) Was the Hawker Management Select Committee informed of any plans being made for the resiting?
MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN, CHAIRMAN OF THE HAWKER POLICY SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows:
I am assuming that this question refers to the moving away of some 200 pedlar hawkers from Sai Yeung Choi Street after the Lunar New Year Festival in February of this year.
Before the festival, these pedlars swarmed into Sai Yeung Choi Street, which is a traffic artery in the busiest part of commercial Mong Kok. Understandably, the Police took action against them for obstructing pedestrians and traffic. After negotiations between the hawkers' representatives, the Police, the City District Office, and the Urban Services Department, it was agreed by all concerned that these pedlars should be allowed the temporary use of part of Sai Yeung Choi Street for the duration of the Lunar New Year holiday only. The Hawker Management Select Committee was informed of this. Despite a promise to leave the street immediately thereafter, these hawkers remained, causing considerable obstruction and giving rise to complaints of disorder from residents and shopkeepers whose businesses were adversely affected. Police action for obstruction and other contraventions of the law was therefore stepped up in Sai Yeung Choi Street, resulting in a gradual but noticeable decrease in the number of pedlars trading there. But the street is, even now, far from totally cleared of hawkers. As these hawkers were not long-standing regulars, they were not entitled to alternative permanent sites. They were free in any case to make use of available space in the hawker bazaar adjoining Fa Yuen Market, some 200 yards away.
There has been nothing but routine and continuing action taken by Police for obstruction and like offences in Tung Choi Street, and there has certainly been no clearance of that street.
As regards the second part of the question, the Hawker Management Select Committee is aware of recent departmental action, in consultation with the District Hawker Consultative Committee, to tidy up and re-order hawker "black spots" in the neighbouring Fa Yuen Street between Bute Street and Prince Edward Road.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask again that this question be referred to the Management Committee and that we may arrange a visit to this area, because I cannot say exactly whether these people have been there long enough. They say they have been in this place a long time, and they keep trickling into the office and complaining, so I would be very glad if we could have a discussion and a visit, if the chairman would agree?
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-I shall certainly ask if that could be done, Mr. Chairman.
(3) MRS. E. ELLIOTT asked the following question:
How many such licences were issued in the year 1968-69? What is a hawker entitled to do with a pedlar licence?
MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN, CHAIRMAN OF HAWKER POLICY SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows:
These licences are issued freely on application at a fee of $20 per annum. Having obtained a licence, a pedlar hawker is then entitled under existing policy to trade in any vacant site which is not in a street already prohibited to hawking and which has been approved as suitable for hawking by the Urban Council, in consultation with the other Government departments concerned. As the term implies, a pedlar hawker licence was originally intended to cover a hawker trading only in mobile fashion, that is, moving from place to place, with two panniers slung from a carrying pole over his shoulder. It differed from the more valuable Fixed Pitch Licence which entitled the holder to trade from an approved fixed site measuring 4 feet by 3 feet, i.e. 12 square feet in area, on which a stall could be erected for display of goods.
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