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from Mr. Hilton CHEONG-LEEN and question No. 8 from Dr. Denny HUANG as all three deal with Hawker Permitted Areas.
I am a little surprised that Miss YEUNG should enquire whether the Urban Services Department cleanses the hawker permitted areas. Of course they do. Miss YEUNG is a member of the Hawkers Select Committee and should recollect that one of the reasons for designating hours of operation in Hawker Permitted Areas is to give the Urban Services Department a chance to cleanse the areas thoroughly after the hawkers have ceased business and removed their stalls. Cleansing also takes place during business hours but obviously cannot be so effective. In reply to the questions from Mr. CHEONG-LEEN and Dr. HUANG, I can only say that these questions concern matters which are being actively considered by the Hawkers Select Committee. The Committee is looking into various ways to improve the Hawker Permitted Area scheme so as to meet complaints, whilst at the same time preserving the original intentions of the scheme, which are to provide places where hawkers may legally operate without harassment. This is a matter of some importance in the context of the present economic recession when hawking is a useful means of livelihood for the unemployed. But I'm afraid it is not possible at this stage to give any details of what the Select Committee has in mind. No useful purpose will be served by premature disclosure. Members will recollect the unnecessary problems that arose from premature publicity about the original scheme for Hawker Permitted Areas.
MISS YEUNG (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, my question does not relate only to cleansing of the area, but also relates to the goods sold there. For example, if they sell fish, pork and fried delicacies, it is a question of hygienic conditions and not only the cleanliness of the streets. I am a Member of the Committee. I know that the streets are cleaned every day, but may be Mr. Hu has misunderstood my question. Some of them are selling food and I would like to know whether there is any adverse effect?
CHAIRMAN (in English):-Under Standing Order 12, questions should not be made the pretext for debate. Nevertheless, I will admit your explanation as a part of the record.
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MR. HILTON CHEONG-LEEN (in English):-Mr. Chairman, I do appreciate the need for avoiding premature publicity, but could I have an assurance from Mr. Henry Hu that parts of action will be taken in a very short time. Alternatively as quickly as possible?
MR. HU (in English):-We will take it in a very short time and also will take it as soon as possible.
DR. DENNY M. H. HUANG (in Cantonese): --Mr. Chairman, I want to ask two questions. The first part of my question is whether we can be informed as to whether the Hawkers Permitted Area scheme is a successful experiment because this scheme has been in practice for a number of months. We should know whether this is a successful scheme or not and whether we can draw any conclusion? And the second point I want to raise is the "First come, first served" practice. Recently the Baptist College has carried out a survey. About 80% of the interviewees rejected this "First come, first served" theory, so can we ask the Chairman of the Hawkers Select Committee whether they are going to consider a better solution?
MR. HU (in English): -About the first point, we are on the route to success if we have a little more patience. I think we will succeed on this Hawker Permitted Area Scheme. About the second question, "the first come, first served", the Select Committee has taken into consideration all the views expressed in newspapers and various other ways. In future, probably we would do this--we may modify or we may not modify. This principle may be modified in such a way that we will accommodate the hawkers, but with two exceptions we can never yield. First, we will allocate no site to any hawkers. We will have more sites for the hawkers so as to avoid the "first come, first served" principle. In other words, everybody has a site. But we will not allocate a site to a particular person and that principle we must adhere to. Secondly, we cannot allow any structure on sites because once we do the structure belongs to that particular hawker and he may sell it and that, in my humble view, is the crux of the hawker problem in the past, and we are trying to solve it so that the "First come, first served" principle should still maintain. With these two principles which I have just given, we will try our best to accommodate hawkers.
DR. HUANG (in Cantonese): -Mr. Chairman, Mr. Hu said that he could not allocate any particular site. I have asked two responsible people and they told me that they are really fixed sites. So the fact is that this is the fixed site of a certain hawker and according to the survey carried out by the Baptist College, most of the hawkers are there all
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