Page 182 of 498
182 of 498
Page 182 of 498
178
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Council markets deals a great blow to their business and rent increase is an irresponsible decision. I feel that the Council should, in its capacity of the landlord, take into account the dissatisfaction of stall tenants with a view to protecting their business. In addition, the Council should take measures to clear itinerant hawker activities outside markets for the sake of improving the appearance of the city.
I remember when Mr. LEUNG Kam-tao, a fellow member of ADPL, proposed at our Annual Debates that the Hawker Control Force should clear unlicensed hawkers in the vicinity of our markets so as to stop them from competing with our stall tenants. Only when they can be cleared will our stall tenants accept future proposals for rent increase. So, with these remarks, I support Mr. WEN's motion.
MR. JOSEPH CHAN YUEK-SUT (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, I am not one for objecting to all increases, but I only accept reasonable increases. I think there are areas for review regarding the proposed rental increase for the Council's market stalls. If we base solely on the assessment of the R & V D, the information may not be entirely accurate and we face the danger of being misled to formulate rental increase policies that are impractical and unrealistic. From my years of experience with this Council, assessment by R & V D, even at times when the Housing Authority decided to increase market stall rental, was very often purely guesswork and unrealistic. In the end when everyone raised objection, then they made adjustments. One can see that they often made up things from their air-conditioned offices without full grasp of factual information.
Take the information I have just received about market traders in Stanley for example. I went privately to that market for observation. I stayed for almost two hours during the supposedly busy hours on Sunday. Throughout the period, no one came in to patronize the pork stall. I wonder how the traders can meet their ends. As for the fish stalls there, I had visited them before. The last time, I had found all fish stalls in operation, but this time, only one stall was open. During my time there, one Westerner came in to buy fish and the other stalls were closed.
The assessment of R & V D is not based on real circumstances at all. When we review rental increase for market stalls, we must consider the information supplied by the department cautiously.
Earlier on, we criticized the Architectural Services Department, now we are criticizing R & V D. I wonder if we can stop making reference to the assessment by R & V D. The Council can get professional assessors to supply us with the requisite information. I think this point should be considered.
The second point we need to note when reviewing market rental is to comply with the Council's original intention of building markets. We should not be
of 498