HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MR. BERNACCHI : On a point of clarification, Sir, I would like to ask you. You said just now that the Urban Council was the licensing authority for hawkers, and the Urban Services Department was the executive arm. If that is right, surely the Hawker Management or Policy Select Committees should be consulted as to what training is given to the men who control the hawkers that the Urban Council licenses?
CHAIRMAN: The Hawker Control Force does not issue licences. Quite a separate body does that—the hawker liaison section—through the licensing offices. It has nothing to do with the Hawker Control Force.
MR. C. K. CHAN: Mr. Chairman, if you said that the Urban Services Department is the executive arm of the Urban Council, does it mean that the executive arm actually picks up direction, or consults the Council on some aspects, particularly on this question of what kind of training we have to give to the Hawker Control Force? After all, we are the authority, and it doesn't mean that the executive arm can take the whole authority from these persons that give it the executive powers.
CHAIRMAN: I think there is some little confusion here perhaps. The Urban Council is the licensing authority for the issue of hawker licences. The Hawker Control Force is set up statutorily under its own Ordinance by which the Director of Urban Services is the authority. So there is no confusion between the issue of licences and the training and discipline for the Hawker Control Force. They are quite different, under separate Ordinances.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN: Mr. Chairman, with your permission, may I clarify one point, and it is this: that both the chairmen of the two Hawker Management and Policy Select Committees are fully consulted as to Hawker Control Force matters, but primarily through the urging, prompting and prodding of the two chairmen concerned.
MR. FORSGATE: Mr. Chairman, could I suggest that members of the two Hawker Select Committees take part in the training of the Hawker Control Force. It would do them all the world of good. (Laughter).
(10) MR. D. J. R. BLAKER asked the following question:
(a) How many District Hawker Consultative Committees have been formed?
(b) How many meetings has each Committee held?
(c) How many items have been discussed by them at their meetings?
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
THE CHAIRMAN, URBAN COUNCIL, replied as follows:
There are 10 of these Committees, one in each of the 10 City Districts under the C.D.O. scheme. So far, they've held 5 meetings: one each in Mong Kok, Wong Tai Sin, and Western Hong Kong; two in Eastern Hong Kong. At 4 of these meetings, the problems of a specific hawker area were discussed. At the fifth meeting (in Western), general issues and procedure were examined.
This is a rather bald statistical answer to the question. I suspect that Mr. BLAKER would welcome further information of a more general nature on the progress and value of these Committees. Each Committee is chaired by the relevant City District Officer. The official representatives consist of the Police Divisional Superintendent, U.S.D. officers dealing with hawker matters, and officers from other relevant Government departments. The unofficial side normally consists of Kaifong representatives, local interests, representatives of hawker groups. The composition of the Committee therefore may vary from meeting to meeting, depending on the problem and its site. Not every hawker matter need be discussed by a Committee. If it's a small issue, such as the resiting of a few stalls to alternative sites which the hawkers concerned accept, then clearly there is no point in a meeting. In other words, progress shouldn't necessarily be measured by the number of meetings held.
But three of the meetings so far held have been very useful in clearing the air for operations at hawker "black spots" in Fa Yuen Street, Kam Wah Street, and Tsz Wan Shan resettlement estate. At the moment, each of the Committees has been asked to consider a list of streets in its area proposed for use as hawker sites.
I think the true value of these Committees will become more readily apparent when the Hawker Liaison Section and the Hawker Control Force are large enough on the ground to be able to exercise proper control over hawkers. At that point, real co-operation between hawkers and control staff will be vitally important, and we hope that the Consultative Committees will serve this purpose well.
MR. BLAKER: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I welcome the information you give us. I attach great importance to these committees in future. I am particularly happy to see that they have been asked to suggest a list of streets where hawker sites might be placed. I would just like to be assured that, contrary to frequent Government policy
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