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# HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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be tolerant. However, it is permanent obstruction that we are targeting here. The reply of the Department just now is taking a small area of the problem as the overall problem, which give Members of the Council an impression that the problem is difficult to deal with. I think if we have to target at permanent obstruction, I don't know whether the Council has some proper measures or not, but no matter on enforcement or in terms of penalties we should do more.
Mr. Joseph CHAN Yuek-SUT (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, manpower is never adequate. At present, in all districts on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon, there are some 500 officers responsible for prosecution work. If these staff only tackle street cleansing obstructions, it may be adequate. However, besides this kind of work, they are also responsible for other areas of work. Therefore manpower is not adequate in dealing with the work at present. As to whether we only take action in places where the problem is serious, the answer is 'no'. In general, when we see that there are such cases, we will take action, and when we receive complaints, we will also deal with them immediately. In the reply just now, there was the phrase 'What options are available?' In my personal opinion, I am afraid some Members might have misunderstood that. The phrase of "What options are available' is an exclamatory remark on the common situation of street obstruction at present, for instance, temporary obstruction due to goods loading and unloading, and temporary deposition of building debris and refuse before they are moved away during renovation and removal of premises. Pavements in Hong Kong are narrow and therefore the aforesaid situations are rather common. The phrase is an exclamatory remark, I hope that the situations can be improved. However, those situations are often inevitable because we cannot ask people not to renovate their flats or not to load and unload goods as there are such actual needs. With regard to permanent obstruction, at present the Department has not received such cases yet; if it does happen, prosecution actions will have been taken. We will not allow permanent obstruction to occur.
Ms. Jennifer Chow Kit-Bing (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I would like to refer to paragraph 5 of the reply. It says that obstruction is a major problem and has a lot to do with town planning. Therefore I want to know what has it to do with town planning. From my personal point of view, it is more a matter of street management than town planning. If it really has something to do with town planning, I wonder if the Department has discussed it with the town planning authorities to see what measures can be adopted to cope with this. From the impression I get from the reply, it sounds as if town planning today should reduce shop premises on the street level so that the shops will have no opportunities to obstruct the streets. I hope Mr. CHAN will reply to the above question.
Mr. Joseph Chan Yuek-sut (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, Ms. Jennifer CHOW is a member of the Town Planning Board. This statement in my reply is
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