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# HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
## ADDRESS BY CHAIRMAN
CHAIRMAN:-Ladies and gentlemen, before proceeding with the agenda this afternoon, I would like to congratulate Mrs. SYMONS and Messrs. P. K. NG, P. F. CHAN, James Wu and John MACKENZIE, on their re-appointment to this Council for a further term. (Applause).
## MINUTES
The Minutes of the meeting held on 7th March, 1972 were confirmed.
## PAPERS
THE CHAIRMAN laid upon the following papers :-
(1) Report on the work of the Urban Council and Urban Services Department for the month of March, 1972.
(2) Statement of Progress for 1971-72.
(3) Hong Kong Shrubs.
CHAIRMAN:-I lay upon the table the papers listed in item 2 of the agenda. In doing so I would like to draw attention to the book on Hong Kong Shrubs. This is the second in the series and is again a very fine publication. I would like to pay tribute to all those inside and outside the Department who have made its production possible, particularly the late Mr. TANG Hune-Cheung, who took most of the photographs and compiled the text largely from his own notes, observations and experience, and also the Government Printer for the very fine printing.
MR. B. A. BERNACCHI:-Mr. Chairman, I rise as outgoing chairman of the Hawker Policy Select Committee to report that my committee, during the past year, has, amongst other things; (a) prepared, in conjunction with a representative of the Legal Department, the sixth, and I hope the final, draft of the Hawker By-laws; (b) laid down the further policy in regard to hawker fixed pitch stalls, i.e. that on the streets they should keep to the old size of 4 × 3, but in off-street bazaars the Urban Services Department is to be given a discretion to increase the size where possible; (c) laid down that the person operating the fixed pitch or cooked food stall should, in general, become the licensee subject to moving if reasonably possible to an off-street hawker bazaar within six months and that the same policy should govern succession cases; (d) granted a general discretion to the Urban Services Department to encourage off-street cooked food stalls to be so placed as to have 150 to 200 sq. ft. each, at least until some new design is approved by this Council. In fact, Mr. Chairman, not only "encourage", but eventually these dimensions are to be the dimensions that the Council will approve, and then (e) considered and approved a completely new approach to the future issuing of hawker licences which for obvious reasons must, before they come into operation, be confidential. With these issues behind us, the Council will, I presume, resolve this afternoon to appoint only one Select Committee to deal with hawkers, reserving the appointment of heads or senior officers of other departments interested in hawker policy to attend as full members, but only if and when a matter of policy is on the agenda. This then is the final report of the Hawker Policy Select Committee. They have taken three years to devise this new policy, and I personally have only been chairman for the final year. I wish the new policy all success on the ground, but I venture to think that it can only be successful if all persons concerned co-operate, if there is a proper force on the ground, call it Hawker Control Force, call it Police, call it hawker liaison, and, most important of all, there is an end to corruption.
MR. HILTON CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, I wish to make some observations on the Statement of Progress 1971-72 on the subjects of resettlement.
May I start off by congratulating the Commissioner for Resettlement and his staff for their all-out and hard-hitting efforts in tackling resettlement management problems during the year under review.
The programme to resite the 12,000 hawkers in the estates got under way in 1971. The results are now becoming apparent: there is more open space and less obstruction in the estates where resiting has already taken place, and these estates are now beginning to breathe again.
The resiting of hawkers programme will continue apace and with the full support of this Council, I believe that the hawker resiting programme in the estates should be completed some time next year.
The Commissioner for Resettlement has been successful in changing the salary scales of many members of the Resettlement Department staff to more reasonable levels. This Council therefore looks forward to seeing a higher level of performance by Resettlement Department staff in providing a better quality of life for all resettlement estate residents.
Problems such as cleaner bathrooms and toilets, brighter lighting, less overcrowding, more community facilities and youth services, more police posts in the estates, etc. are very much in the minds of Resettlement Department staff. They are matters to be tackled with the utmost urgency.
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