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Although no final plans have been drawn up for this bazaar, it is at present intended that the bazaar should contain sites for 12 Cooked Food Stalls, 6 General Purpose Stalls and 250 Fixed Pitch Stalls. The Cooked Food Stalls will probably be arranged along the southern edge of the site and the Fixed Pitch Stalls will be arranged, as is the Department's normal practice wherever possible, in blocks of 4 providing each hawker in effect with a corner site. Sites in this bazaar will be allocated to eligible hawkers by ballot without distinction as regards income. However, priority will be given, in the first instance, to those who were cleared from the edge of the site to enable construction to take place and to those who are at present sited on Aberdeen Reservoir Road. Thereafter, any remaining sites may be allocated to licensed hawkers whom it may be necessary to move from elsewhere or to any applicants for fixed pitch licences who would be dealt with by the Social Welfare Department in the usual way.
MR. HU:--Mr. Chairman, I would ask Mr. LOBO in what way will the priority be exercised in favour of the hawkers who were originally hawking there?
MR. LOBO:--As I said, the sites will be allocated by ballot.
MR. HU:--In other words, only those people who were originally hawking there will participate in the ballot in the first instance? Is that correct?
MR. LOBO:--In the first instance, and the remaining thereafter if so warranted.
MR. HU:--Mr. Chairman, the last paragraph of the answer, the last two or three sentences, if there are remaining sites will you invite the hawkers in other places to go into that bazaar. Would that indirectly encourage a larger hawking population in Aberdeen?
MR. LOBO:--I am not saying that we are inviting. The idea at the moment is that the policy is to keep the hawkers in bazaars and off streets. In that area there are about 180 hawkers altogether and sites created will provide possibly for 250. There is still a waiting list.
MR. HU:--And also in the last sentence, Mr. Lobo did not answer my question. Really in Aberdeen there are a lot of poor people who are hawking. I wish that the Management Select Committee on Hawkers could look into this aspect of the question.
MR. LOBO:--Of the poor people?
MR. HU:--Yes. Some people, they were originally farmers in the Wong Chuk Hang area. They were cleared from the area because we have already completed the construction of the playground and those people are finding it very difficult to make a living now.
MR. LOBO:--I am sure that members of my committee and I will always look at cases referred to us by the Social Welfare Department.
MR. HU:--And also I wish that the good sites at these hawker bazaars can be taken by people who were originally hawking in Shek Pai Wan and not be taken by people from outside. Could you give me this assurance?
MR. LOBO:--I can only say the sites will be allocated by ballot, but to all those who are there now in the first instance.
MR. HU:--Thank you very much.
(13) MR. HENRY H. L. HU asked the following question:-
I understand that Shek Kip Mei Resettlement Estate will be demolished and rebuilt. If so, when will work be started? Which Department is responsible for such reconstruction? Is the said scheme a pilot scheme and if it is successful, which it must be, will there be other similar schemes?
THE COMMISSIONER for RESETTLEMENT replied as follows:-
A scheme for conversion of Shek Kip Mei Resettlement Estate was discussed at a joint meeting of the Resettlement Policy and Management Select Committees on 1st October, 1970. As explained at that meeting, the scheme proposed, involving the conversion of 22 blocks and the eventual rebuilding of 7 blocks is imaginative and far-reaching and, if acceptable to Government, will be implemented in several phases, spread out over several years. The Joint Committees agreed unanimously to give their strong support to the proposed scheme. A recommendation that the project be undertaken is included in the Housing Board Report for 1970. The scheme will be costly, and the implications are now under discussion by the Government departments concerned. When the departments have resolved amongst themselves to an agreed recommendation, the recommendation will then be processed by the Colonial Secretariat for consideration by the Governor in Council.
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