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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MR. TONG (in Cantonese):-Can I ask, since we have over 100 hawkers who are now trading on-street, and some of them are facing financial difficulties, because they cannot afford the market rent, the cost of furnishing and so on. For these reasons, they could not move into the market. So in future, when we resite hawkers, could we give special consideration to the financial circumstances of these hawkers? Do we also consider whether they can afford the market rent? In the event, we do have a large number of hawkers trading around the market, do we give preferential treatment to these hawkers, so that they can trade elsewhere? These hawkers, indeed, affect the business level inside the market and reduce the competitive edge, and I think the hawkers trading outside the market usually sell it at a lower price than the market stalls.
MR. SHUM (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, there are several sides of this question. First of all, concerning hawkers outside the market, the General Duties Teams are trying their very best to evict them, and remove them from the market area, that I think there are considerable improvements recently. The second question relates to encouraging hawkers going into market. It is not that easy, sometimes, we will resite them to designated pitches and these pitches are not in very advantageous position in their views, and then they therefore move around to find better trade. As regards the setting market rent, we rely largely on the recommendation of the Rating and Valuation Department, in fact, we accept a rent which is only half of their recommended, if Members feel that what we said is normally higher than people can afford, we can negotiate to reduce the start upset price, or certainly consider lowering the upset price.
3. MR. TONG KAM-BIU asked the following question (in Cantonese):-There are usually a large number of illegal hawkers operating near the Hawker Permitted Area in Mong Kok, causing not only traffic congestion and obstruction to residents in the neighbourhood, but also adversely affecting the business of the shops nearby. Is the Council taking any effective action to solve the problems in that illegal hawking black-spot?
MR. SHUM CHOI-SANG, CHAIRMAN OF THE MARKETS AND STREET TRADERS SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in Cantonese):-This question concerns illegal hawking near a Hawker Permitted Place in Mong Kok. I am presuming that it refers to Tung Choi Street which is the biggest Hawker Permitted Place in the district. It asks whether the Council is taking any effective action to solve the problems in 'that illegal hawking black spot'.
The section of Tung Choi Street between Argyle Street and Dundas Street is a Hawker Permitted Place. There are 960 licensed pitches of which 91 are at present vacant as a result of enforcement action against irregularities. Illegal hawking activities do indeed take place at the junctions of Tung Choi Street and the five streets which intersect it.
At present, two squads of the General Duties Team are deployed on static duties on a daily basis in the immediate vicinity of this area between noon and 11 p.m.; this period covering the entire specified trading hours for the licensees. The main function of the General Duties Teams is to manage the H.P.P., including the control and arrest of illegal hawkers. In the past three months, there have been 28 arrests and 5 seizures for offences in connection with hawking obstruction and hawking without a licence at these street junctions. These numbers are small and reflect the fact, not that our control activities are insufficient, but that since they are virtually constant, they have discouraged most potential illegal hawking activities.
The department believes that the situation around Tung Choi Street H.P.P. is reasonably well under control and it is not the black spot the question suggests. In support of this is the fact that there have been no complaints about illegal hawking activities in this area either from the shopowners or the licensed hawkers themselves for the past six months.
MR. TONG (in Cantonese):-Do we have even more effective methods, like what we call a 'scarecrow' method. In other words, we spread out our General Duties Teams and operate as scarecrows and they would not know the other area which is not covered by them. Can we have a more flexible scheme, or deploy our staff more flexibly? We do not station our General Duties Teams staff in designated spot.
CHAIRMAN (in English):—But of course, it is a hypothetical question and if Mr. SHUM want to answer, you may.
MR. SHUM (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, as I have already said, that we have two General Duties Teams operating in Tung Choi Street and we operated in a road section, we do have people stationed at road junctions. In June, there will be a re-organization of the General Duties Team structure and subsequent redeployment of staff. I am hoping in the short term, possibly in September, they will have radio controls, so this will give us more flexibility in deployment. By which time, the enforcement action will be far more effective.
4. MRS. MARGARET LI asked the following question (in Cantonese):-The departmental Training School has now been in operation for some years. Can I have a report on its work, in particular concerning its value in keeping up a stream of talented young persons entering the Health Inspectorate?
DR. KIM Y. S. CHAM, CHAIRMAN OF THE ADMINISTRATION SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in Cantonese):-This question is in two parts, the first part asks for a report on the work of the Training School. The U.S.D. Training School was formally established in December 1982 to be responsible for all matters relating to the training of departmental staff. Its functions are to identify their training needs, to design, organize and evaluate training activities to meet those needs; and to assist the department in formulating departmental training strategies and policies to meet the ever-changing operational activities
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