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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
A Community Problem
What might the Council now do? Of course, hawking is a community problem. Let it be said time without number until it is unequivocally accepted by the Government and the people alike. It should therefore be tackled in combination. Not only has the Council the obligation to set out a definite policy without prevarication and free of contradictions as well, but there must also be strong support by the Government with land and money to enable the Council to engage the necessary manpower and also build the trading places if it is to do the job adequately, which the Urban Services Department has stated definitely that it can do if given more staff.
too.
Above all, the people of Hong Kong must make up their minds. Do they want to live in the present unsatisfactory environmental conditions, and will they accept that in reality it is they who are subsidizing most of the street-traders? Do they realize also that they are in fact condoning the corruption of the young and the able-bodied, while giving a helping hand only to insignificantly small numbers of compassionate cases? It is a grave moral issue too, not only an easy economic safety valve. The Council will only be able to make inroads into the problem if supported by a mature and realistic attitude on the part of the community at large. The pros and cons should be analysed carefully by the media to counteract the emotionalism which is deliberately stirred up by vested interests, including strong-arm elements, when attempts are made to sort out the problem. It is easy enough for those who seek a passing political advantage to distort the position with outlandish remarks to make good copy for the gullible few, but one cannot fool the people all the time. And, Hong Kong cannot survive on make-believe attitudes.
The Working Man Pays
The working man here lives by his own exertions and he naturally expects that others should do likewise and not be a burden on him as a ratepayer because he has enough problems of his own in a competitive situation without taking on additional loads not of his own choosing. Indeed, it is claimed by the uninformed and those jumping to easy conclusions that the hawker keeps costs down. What is actually happening is that the ordinary wage-earner is digging into his pocket to pay the high cost of keeping hawkers going in order that the housewife might in turn pay a few cents less when out shopping. So, how does he save in effect when his wife buys from a hawker? But, no matter how illogical, she will go on buying all the same.
Public Land
Public land, mostly streets and pavements, is occupied without paying an economic fee, if at all, while our many thousands of shopkeepers and other small businesses pay rents and rates for what they use.
Excessive cleaning operations have to be paid for as additional manpower and equipment have to be used. Consequently, the least the community could reasonably expect of our street-traders is that they would pay their fair share for what they get and use. This is only reasonable. And, hard-headed local people readily understand and accept that such should be the case, for everyone is expected to pay his way. Accordingly, fees should be adjusted to cover actual costs and eventually also to take account of the business prospects of the public space that is occupied.
Hawkers should also help by removing their wares when the day's trading is over just as their counterparts must do elsewhere. This would enable their pitches to be washed down. It would also reduce the dangerous obstruction they create; it could be done by their acceptance of orderly arrangements in the areas where they trade. If they comply with reasonable regulations, and indeed police themselves, there would be no need for any excessive outside control action, so that the accusation of harassment would not arise.
Of course, where those who are now licensed as itinerant hawkers actually function in fixed pitches and have been surveyed as static traders, the Council should call a spade a spade and license them accordingly without more ado. Likewise, where hawkers have been known to be trading in public areas for a long time without being licensed, and so are kept outside the law and on the run except in hawker permitted areas, their situation should be set right and perhaps provisional licences issued to them for periodic renewals, which could be terminated after due notice when social and economic conditions warrant. In fact, hawkers are more concerned to secure a fixed pitch to do business without prosecution than whether they are licensed or not.
MULTIPLE Courses of ACTION
A New Management Approach
On the Council's own internal arrangements, a new management approach has been proposed but not put into effect as yet. In the first place, all hawkers in bazaars should be transferred to the Markets and Abattoirs Select Committee to be treated as market stall holders and given similar leases for their own protection. In this
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