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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, at this year's Annual Convention Debate, I shall speak on three subjects which significantly influence the living environment of our four million population in Hong Kong.
The first subject is Hawkers, the second Health Education, and the third Public Housing.
Hawkers
Insofar as social conditions are concerned, Hong Kong is still very much a developing territory. The Urban Council therefore recognizes that under existing social conditions hawking is a full-time occupation for a large number of people, as well as some protection against un-employment, insufficient family income, or lack of a pension scheme for the retired worker.
It is the responsibility of the Urban Council to ensure that hawkers are properly licensed, and are given the opportunity to earn a livelihood. However, hawkers will have to respect the rights of other Hong Kong residents and conform to the Hawker By-laws, which are being revised and simplified, and which specify requirements of health, sanitation and general orderliness.
It is vitally important that the Urban Council's hawker policy is applied firmly, fairly and consistently by the Urban Services Department, which must also rely on the full co-operation of the City District Offices, the Resettlement Department, the Police, and other Government Departments, as well as the Kaifong Associations, the Hawker Associations and the hawkers themselves.
In order that the Urban Council's hawker policy can be applied successfully, it is imperative that the Urban Services Department should have sufficient resources, such as additional trained staff and land suitable for establishing off-street hawker bazaars.
I have discussed this matter of sufficient resources with the Director of Urban Services on numerous occasions. I know that he is just as anxious as the Hawker Policy and Management Select Committees to see that these resources are made available by Government as soon as possible. It is a matter of very serious concern to the Urban Council, since we will not be able to keep hawker matters under proper control unless we are given the assistance and support we need now and without any further delay.
As Chairman of the Hawker Policy Select Committee, I would like to state that the Urban Council fully appreciates the co-operation given by the various Government Departments, Kaifong Associations
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and Hawker Associations on matters concerning hawkers. In particular, I wish to express appreciation to the Resettlement Department staff through the Commissioner for Resettlement for their close co-operation in preventing hawker matters from becoming even worse than what they already are in resettlement estates.
In the coming months, as additional manpower and other resources become available to the Urban Services Department for implementing the Urban Council's hawker policy, we will have to call more than ever before upon the assistance of the City District Offices and the Kaifong Associations within each of the ten Districts. As I have mentioned previously, hawker matters will have to be regulated and settled more and more at the district level. In the process, it is necessary that the hawkers should be continuously reminded what they are entitled to do, what not to do, and that they must exercise greater self-discipline among themselves in keeping their sites clean and free of congestion.
When it comes to the turn of the Officials to speak during this Debate, I would like to have an unqualified assurance from the Director of Urban Services that the Government will be providing in time-and will not be tardy about it-sufficient manpower, sufficient sites for off-street bazaars and modular markets, and other necessary resources, so that the Urban Council can successfully implement its hawker policy for the benefit of the general public as well as for the hawkers themselves.
This should apply not only with regard to hawkers in the urban areas (for which the Urban Council is responsible) but also in the New Territories (for which the Urban Council is not responsible). In some Resettlement Estates in the New Territories, specifically Tsuen Wan, the hawker situation has completely gone out of control. Recently, I saw a large Government-subsidized school in a Tsuen Wan Resettlement Estate completely surrounded on four sides by permanent illegal hawkers, which created a most unhealthy and unfavourable environment for the students attending the school. Although this problem was brought to the attention of Government, nothing could be done as the staff of the departments concerned said they could not cope with the situation.
In the Urban Council's Hawker Select Committees, everything possible is being done in co-operation with the Urban Services Department to progressively implement a consistent hawker policy both in terms of definition as well as of implementation. Once the policy has been established, it is expected that such policy must be implemented fairly and impartially. Individual members of the Urban Council or senior members of the Urban Services Department, or any other Government Department, cannot interfere with that policy. I would expect that the Director of Urban Services will do his best to ensure
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