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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
In the light of complaints recently received, the Department is now planning to take enforcement action against such illegal street trading activity with the assistance of the Police. Warning letters were issued to these illegal second-hand books dealers in the area on 1 September 1989. It is anticipated that the situation should improve in the light of the Department's intended enforcement action.
MR. CHAN KWOK-MING (in Cantonese): This kind of activities has been in existence for more than ten years and it may go on continuously in future. Has the Department considered any concrete solution to solve this problem? For example, can temporary licences be issued to the illegal hawkers from May to the end of August or a site be allocated to them for operation? Although the Department has stated that such activities would create no serious obstruction to traffic, as far as I know, they did cause some obstructions to traffic and pedestrians.
MR. HILTON CHEONG-LEEN (in English): Mr. Chairman, Mr. CHAN's personal suggestion will be put to the Department and the matter will again be referred to the Markets and Street Traders Select Committee for further consideration. I do realize that this is a long continuing problem which has worried many of the residents in the area concerned. I have seen the latest issue of the Mong Kok Sing Pao. There is a picture of these vans operating and Mr. CHAN's suggestion will be followed up positively. I can't speak for what happened ten years ago but I can assure him that from now on we will keep his point very much in mind.
MR. JOSEPH Y. S. CHAN (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, apart from causing obstruction to traffic, this kind of trading activities from light goods vehicles also gives rise to a problem to which no due attention has been paid. Since these second-hand books have changed hands several times, they may lead to the spread of infectious diseases. Have we considered this respect as far as the health of the purchasers of second-hand books is concerned?
MR. HILTON CHEONG-LEEN (in English): Maybe Dr. Ronald LEUNG, the Chairman of the Public Health Select Committee, is the right person to answer that question.
CHAIRMAN (in English): It is a little bit outside the ambit of our supplementary. Would you like to go ahead, Mr. CHEONG-LEEN?
MR. HILTON CHEONG-LEEN (in English): No, Sir. Dr. Ronald LEUNG may answer that question.
CHAIRMAN (in English): Would you like to help us, Dr. LEUNG?
DR. RONALD D. B. LEUNG (in English): I am not aware of any reported cases of infectious diseases being transmitted from the vehicles of books. So I don't think this problem is enormous enough for us to be much concerned about.
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MR. DANIEL K. T. WONG asked the following question (in English): Recently there are many complaints about the cleanliness of streets. Residents have noticed that some streets which used to be swept twice a day, and now only swept once and that for a long time, streets have not been washed. There has resulted in the accumulation of rubbish and an increased population of rats.
Would the Department please explain:
(a) How many times are streets swept each day; How does Department decide the frequency, and is the Department experiencing shortage of labour?
(b) Is there a shortage of man-power to operate water-tank trucks for washing streets? How often are those trucks used?
(c) If there is shortage of labour, does the Department have any proposal to alleviate the problem, and?
(d) How does the Department control pests including rats; most rats come out from sewage, what is the Department's solution?
DR. RONALD D. B. LEUNG, CHAIRMAN OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in English): Mr. WONG's question composes of three different parts. Firstly the frequency of daily street sweeping and the frequency of street washing. Secondly the question asks whether there is any shortage of man-power to provide such services and also if there is such a shortage, the Department's arrangements to deal with it. Thirdly pest control work including rats which mainly come out from the sewers.
With regard to the first question, the frequency of street sweeping depends on the need in any particular area. Some areas are swept 8 times a day (e.g. busy town centres) while less busy roads are swept once daily. The average normal sweeping frequency in built-up town area is 4 times a day. As to street washing, the frequency again depends on the necessity basis. All roads and lanes in densely populated urban areas are washed once every 2 weeks. For hawker sites and major refuse collection points, they are washed everyday in order to keep these sites clean and free of offensive smells. There are altogether in total 29 street washing vehicles in operation daily: 16 in Kowloon and 13 in Hong Kong. All these 29 vehicles are operated according to a planned street washing programme.
As regards the second part of the question, the establishment of the cleansing work force in the Department is now at 5,026. They perform street sweeping, street washing and other cleansing work. As at 30 June 1989 the total strength was 4,430. In other words the shortage of cleansing man-power is 596 or 11.8%. It should be noted that the establishment of 5,026 Workman II also includes 28.52% operational and leave relieve staff. Despite this shortfall of 11.8% the Department is striving hard to maintain Council's services in daily street sweeping and regular street washing wherever possible in accordance with the scheduled frequencies.
To alleviate the problem of shortage of cleansing force, the Department has put in hand the following measures:
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