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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
DR. HENRY H. L. HU, CHAIRMAN OF THE HAWKERS SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in English):-
Mr. Chairman, some years ago, the Urban Council ceased to issue new hawker licences (with one or two minor exceptions such as newspaper hawkers), because it wished to seek a gradual reduction in the number of hawkers. The Council also regarded hawking as a business. It was also felt that elderly and disabled persons should not be encouraged to take up hawking, because too often they were themselves physically incapable of the work and instead improperly sublet their licences to more able-bodied persons over whom neither they nor the Urban Council had any direct control. In any event, the Social Welfare Department was in a better position to help elderly and disabled persons through its various assistance schemes. There are comparatively few genuine pedlar hawkers. Almost every hawker tries to erect a stall. It follows that no licence should be issued unless an acceptable stall site is available, and it has also been one of the Council's statements of aim for some time that on-road hawkers should be moved into proper off-road bazaars. But, as we all know, there are virtually no suitable stall sites left, either on-road or off-road. It makes no sense therefore to issue new hawker licences when no proper sites can be allocated.
I respect Mrs. ELLIOTT's desire to regularize the position of persons who have hawked for years and are perhaps too old to change their way of making a living. But the difficulties of identifying these people, of providing suitable sites for them, and of containing the numbers of hawkers make it impracticable to consider changing the Council's stated policies. The Social Welfare Department's assistance schemes for the elderly and disabled are intended to take care of such people. In the circumstances, the Council is not prepared at the present to issue new licences to the hawkers as mentioned in the question.
MRS. ELLIOTT (in English):-Mr. Chairman, the Chairman of the Hawkers Select Committee has not answered my question at all. His first paragraph is irrelevant. The second paragraph expresses his own opinion without facts, and in the third he speaks for the Council without asking the Council. So I would like to ask whether I can refer this question to the Hawkers Select Committee for consideration.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
DR. HU (in English):-Yes, you can.
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MR. HILTON CHEONG-LEEN (in English):-Mr. Chairman, since the Chairman of the Hawkers Select Committee has said in his reply that there are virtually no more suitable stall sites left, either on-road or off-road, will the question of the Council's future policies concerning hawker resitings, in future, be reviewed.
DR. HU (in English):-The Hawkers Select Committee is always trying to solve the problem fundamentally which comes to the Hawkers Select Committee from time to time. Certainly Mr. CHEONG-LEEN's point will be taken when we discuss that problem.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN (in English):-Mr. Chairman, I would like to make some clarification. May I point out that this is not a problem which has occurred from time to time. It has to do with the long-term future of hawker policy.
DR. HU (in English):-Yes, we will consider it.
MR. TSIN SAI-NIN (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, I have heard the remarks made by the three Councillors. Actually, I think the Hawkers Select Committee has not done enough and the Chairman of the Committee has not answered fully Mrs. Elsie ELLIOTT's question, neither has he recognized Mr. CHEONG-LEEN's facts. May I suggest that the Hawkers Select Committee start co-operating with the Social Welfare Department and, within a definite time, present a report to the Council so that we know whether the Hawkers Select Committee has done anything at all.
DR. HU (in English):-We certainly could instruct the Urban Services Department to contact the Social Welfare Department, but I don't think we can ask the Social Welfare Department to submit a report to us because the Social Welfare Department is outside the jurisdiction of the Urban Council.
MR. TSIN (in Cantonese):-Sorry, I did not mean to ask the Social Welfare Department to submit a report to us, but we always have joint Committees with Government departments like the Housing Department. I hope that the Hawkers Select Committee will do more and send a Sub-Committee to liaise with the Social Welfare Department.
DR. HU (in English):-I certainly will do that.