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MR. HU: I do not know of this matter at all.
MR. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, may I say that the procedure outlined by Mr. BERNACCHI has been agreed upon, that is so, and when questions are put concerning the advice of a Select Committee, particularly in reference to resettlement, where the Commissioner is often asked to answer the question, the draft answers should be shown to the Chairman of the Select Committee concerned.
MOTION.
MR. B. A. BERNACCHI moved the following Motion:
"Now that the issue of further pedlar licences has been discontinued, this Council is agreed that the normal dimensions of all fixed pitch stalls and fixed pedlar stalls shall be 6 feet by 3 feet and request the Hawker Policy Select Committee to recommend the appropriate alterations to these Urban Council's by-laws."
He said: I do not want to make a long speech this afternoon. The issue is quite clear and I do not even intend to go into the history of the matter. Suffice it is to say that, as will be well-known to the majority on this Council, most of the pedlar hawkers are in fact fixed site hawkers displaying their wares either on the pavement itself or in two baskets on the pavement. Now, therefore, no further pedlar hawker licences are to be issued, the time has come to consider and make a decision on the reasonable size of the fixed pitch, including fixed pedlar stalls. This has been bandied around Select Committees for far too long. We all know that the fixed stall, whether it is a fixed pitch or a fixed pedlar, is grossly in excess of 4 × 3. In my submission, a site of 4 × 3 is an impossible site to sell from, and the minimum frontage should be 6 feet. If we make a reasonable size, officially, then it is far easier to cut down the oversized stall to that reasonable size. Whereas we have come across a lot of opposition, and there will be in the future a lot of opposition, if we try to make the hawkers do the impossible and sell from exactly 4 × 3. I have only this morning come back from Ngau Tau Kok where the average stall is vastly in excess of even 6 × 3. I therefore consider that the time has come when we should have reasonable laws and then enforce them with a reasonable chance of success. I therefore move that the size of the stall be 6 × 3 and request the Hawker Policy Select Committee to recommend the appropriate alterations to the Urban Council by-laws.
MR. HENRY H. L. HU:- Mr. Chairman, I beg to second the Motion. Mr. Chairman, there was a great rush of applicants for pedlar licences before the deadline for refusing to give any pedlar licences. It was about June this year. It shows that there are still a lot of poor citizens who need hawking for maintaining their living. The original size of hawking site is, as Mr. BERNACCHI said, 3 × 4. I quite agree with him that it is far too small - it is not a practical size. He, in his Motion, proposed that the size should be 6 × 3. I would submit, Mr. Chairman, it would be a proper size for hawking in Hong Kong. I understand that PWD tried to help us to build model hawking sites, which we did receive some time ago in Chai Wan Resettlement Estate, and the size is about 3 × 6, so the 6 × 3 figure is a very proper figure. Therefore, I am pleased to support this Motion and I beg to second it.
CHAIRMAN:- The Motion has been moved and seconded, does any Member of Council wish to speak?
MRS. E. ELLIOTT:- Mr. Chairman, I wish to support Mr. BERNACCHI's Motion. It is quite obvious that the statutory size 4 feet by 3 feet is too small, and constantly gives rise to illegal extensions, or the appropriation of more than one stall for one family. A law which is so unreasonable that it cannot be implemented is a bad law. This regulation on the size of hawker stalls is unreasonable. Even the Government departments admit it is unreasonable by permitting constant breaches. In the recently re-arranged bazaar in Fa Yuen Street, it was agreed that a site of 4′ × 3′ would be allocated to each hawker. But as this was an unrealistic size, the hawkers almost all acquired several sites and joined them. And in resettlement estates, the statutory size has not been adhered to. Since the hawkers, without exception, object to the size 4 × 3, and the departments constantly recognize the genuineness of their complaint by allowing breaches of the law, would it not be more honest, and lead to fewer malpractices, if we relaxed the law to meet the reality? I therefore support the Motion before the Council.
MR. R. H. LOBO:- Mr. Chairman, I am not disputing the intention of Mr. BERNACCHI's Motion. However, I regret that at this stage, when the Hawker Policy Select Committee is in the process of reviewing this very subject of sizes of pitches, I cannot go along and agree with this resolution as it is presented. I would propose an amendment, which is, after the words "pedlar stall shall be" delete the words beginning with "6 feet by 3 feet" until the end of the text, and substitute with the words "reviewed by the Hawker Policy Select Committee and its decision presented to the Whole Council for its final approval and implementation".
Mr. Chairman, my strong views on this subject is simply because I do not think it is appropriate that at this time we should tie the hands of the Hawker Policy Select Committee on specific dimensions when there is so much more that can be done to improve this very question of stalls based on locations, circumstances as well as other conditions.
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