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Policy Matters
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The Committee also dealt with other matters of policy, such as succession to fixed pitch stalls, Bootblack licences, delineation of stalls, shades for stalls, validity of New Territories licences, mobile canteens, transfer of licences.
Management
Much of the Committee's work concerns the general management of hawking and hawker bazaars, and thus has to deal with numerous individual cases. These cases invariably have a bearing on the overall management of hawkers, as the Committee must try to ensure that all hawkers are given equal treatment as far as this is possible. The Committee has also reviewed a number of cases as appeals from Delegated Members of the Hawkers Select Committee.
We have made steady progress and improvement. With true understanding of the community towards hawkers, I hope that hawkers could make more contributions towards community life than before.
(Dr. Denny M. H. HUANG arrived at this point.)
Mr. Chairman, with these remarks, may I have the pleasure in supporting the Motion. (Applause.)
MR. R. H. LOBO (in English): Mr. Chairman, as Chairman of the Markets and Abattoirs Select Committee I should like to say a few words about the building programme, which was revived by the Markets Select Committee in 1967. I will group markets and hawker bazaars together because the distinction between the two is gradually disappearing as my friend, Mr. Henry Hu, has just said as a result of the Council's policy of resiting hawkers into markets.
Before 1971, a limited number of commodities was allowed to be sold in market buildings. However, to facilitate the process of resiting hawkers into markets, the Select Committee decided to allow all recognized hawker commodities, including cloth, clothing, footwear, household wares as well as a comprehensive range of food items, to be sold in the new markets. I thought it worthwhile mentioning, at this time, that since 1970 we have built markets and bazaars which together provide 226 stalls for the sale of meat, fish and poultry, and nearly 2,000 off-street stalls or pitches for hawkers.
This progress could even be better if two main problems which are beyond the control of the Urban Council and the Urban Services Department could be overcome. The first is the availability of market sites. Some of the projects in the programme have been held back for many years because, for various reasons, the reserved sites cannot be made available. For example, the reprovisioning of Sham Shui Po Market was a priority item long before the building programme was revived in 1968. However, because three fish laans occupy part of the market site, and repeated requests by the department to have them removed have not been successful, it appears that we still have to wait another 10 years before any success is achieved. Similarly, an item for reprovisioning of Sai Wan Ho Market was held back for 20 years pending suitable site, and finally in 1973 it was agreed.
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The other problem stems from the decision to maximize the use of valuable land by providing markets on the lower floors of multi-storey, multi-purpose buildings containing other facilities such as car parks, etc., including district libraries. This is a sensible idea which was accepted by the Markets Select Committee and endorsed by this Council, but on condition that urgent market projects would not be delayed by the planning of other facilities. I am afraid this has not worked well in this way. For instance, the reprovisioning of To Kwa Wan Market would have been well under way by now if it had not meant expanding the project for a multi-purpose building. The detailed planning of this market was completed for nearly two years, yet we are waiting for other departments to claim their part of this multi-purpose building.
I do not pretend that the implementation of the 41 items now in the P.W.D. programme for the year 1974-75 will completely solve our hawker problem, but its implementation will go a long way towards replacing the present unhygienic and untidy street hawking centres, with hygienic and pleasant shopping facilities for the people of Hong Kong.
I therefore call on my colleagues to join me in urging Government to accord a much higher priority to the task of making market sites available for their intended purpose, and to devise more effective machinery for co-ordinating and planning of multi-purpose buildings. It is my hope too that hawker bazaars will soon become temporary markets so that all traders therein would be eventually accommodated into markets and become stall holders, thus reducing the hawking problem, the congestion, unhygienic conditions and corruption.
I would like to mention today the need also for a new abattoir. In March 1963, the slaughtering figures were 1,499,822 pigs, 107,000 cattle and 7,700 goats. This year or perhaps to say since 10 years