1985

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proposed to be resited into these markets is being conducted by the Working Party and its deliberations will be included in the report to be released for public consultation when completed. I would like to add that the report is completed and it is now being translated and printed.

The Urban Services Department is at the moment also conducting a separate review on the Council's market stall rentals policy. This study is expected to be completed soon and recommendations will be made to the Markets and Street Traders Select Committee which will then reconsider its market stall rental policy to ensure that it remains equitable and realistic.

The current policy adopted by the Council is that, upon the expiry of a stall tenancy, rentals are increased by 100 per cent up to a maximum of the fair market rental as assessed by the Rating and Valuation Department, and if after the increase, the rental is still less than half of the fair market rental, it would be increased by another 50 per cent of the old rental in the second year of the new tenancy.

Mr. Joseph Chan (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, from the answer given by Mrs. Elliott Tu, we know that at present there are some market buildings with vacant stalls and at the same time there are unlicensed hawkers operating on-street, such a situation will prove that there is a problem with the construction and existence of the market complexes. In Mrs. Elliott Tu's answer, there was mention that the causes for unsatisfactory occupancy rate of stalls in UC markets are many and varied and some of them were attributed to competition from nearby hawkers and fresh provision shops, could I ask whether these nearby hawkers and fresh provision shops are licensed or unlicensed? Has the Council considered any means of tackling this sort of competition, and has the Council ever tried any measures to deal with these shops? That is the first supplementary I would like to ask now.

Mrs. Elliott Tu (in English):—Mr. Chairman, I think when Mr. Chan sees the recommendation of the Working Party, he would realize we have tackled all the questions he asks me now and, short of giving the contents of the consultation paper which has not yet been published, I really do not think I can give direct answers except to say that all the points are being dealt with. There are unlicensed hawkers, but there are also hawkers who have come out of the markets to operate because they cannot operate inside the markets, because some of the markets are in poor locations and some of them are too small to accommodate a lot of hawkers with the result we have too many stalls. Some of the market stall-holders who cannot operate on the upper floors will come out to operate outside. Some of them are licensed inside the market, but they are operating outside; some are unlicensed hawkers and the fresh provision shops attract the hawkers. We are going to make sure that in future we do not place our markets beside fresh provision shops but at the moment some of them are beside the fresh provision shops. We cannot move them all at once, but I think you will see that our report does deal with this matter.

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Miss Cecilia Yeung (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, Mrs. Elliott Tu mentioned there are some shops which are on blind corners, have we ever considered that we should charge a lower rent for these less viable stall spaces because some income is better than no income at all.

Mrs. Elliott Tu (in English):—Mr. Chairman, this is also included in the report. We are trying to find not just a lower rent, we are trying to find a different usage for those particular stalls, and if on the upper floor, we are trying not to let them altogether. So we are dealing with the matter.

Mr. Joseph Chan (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, I have two questions. Here it is stated that we increase our rentals based on the fair market rental assessed by the Rating and Valuation Department. We find that staff of the Rating and Valuation Department sit in an air-conditioned office to make their assessment. They do not really come out to the site to look at the actual situation before they assess the rent. Does the Council rely solely on the assessment of these officers who work behind closed doors, or is it possible for the Council to also make use of assessments made by registered professionals in the Territory? That would serve as reference information to enable the Council to establish fairer and more acceptable rental levels for these stalls. My second question is we know that the design and location of some markets are not desirable and there are some stalls which are permanently vacant, and we cannot let them out even if we lower the rent. Is it possible that these stalls could be put to other use, say for instance, for recreation and cultural activities?

Chairman (in English):—This raises very big questions, Mrs. Elliott Tu.

Mrs. Elliott Tu (in English):—Mr. Chairman, I tried to jot down the points, and I will try to answer. Concerning the assessments, I cannot confirm that the Rating and Valuation Department staff are sitting in their air-conditioned offices guessing what the rent should be. But there have been some complaints about the assessments and in cases where we have had complaints, I may mention Ngau Tau Kok as an example, we have looked into the matter and we are not satisfied with the assessment because there are other factors which have probably not been taken into consideration by the Rating and Valuation Department, and we did reduce the rents in that case, so we are not taking only the assessment of the Rating and Valuation Department. As to whether we will have some local firms who will come to assess the rent, this is one of the matters taken into consideration when we discuss this particular problem in the Markets and Street Traders Select Committee. Certainly, we do not blindly accept the recommendations of the Rating and Valuation Department in cases where we feel that there were other factors we should also consider. You mentioned that the market stalls were vacant because they were not suitably rented and they were not suitable for operation. I have already mentioned that we are quite aware of that. I think you are thinking of the market in your own area Tin Wan.

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