Page 260 of 654
HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
259
MR. CHAN KWOK-LEUNG (in Cantonese):- Mr. Chairman, reforming the Council includes improving its work on public hygiene. A UC Councillor complained to me today that in a food shop in a UC venue, he saw a cockroach strolling on the table. Mr. Chairman, I believe that the cockroach was definitely not passing by. It was staging a procession demonstration deliberately on the table, expressing its strong views against the Council's work on food hygiene.
For a long time in Hong Kong, some food shops and food premises have been operating without a licence. The hygienic condition of some food premises is extremely poor. This is a common phenomenon. Last month's statistics show that there were 164 unlicensed food premises in the areas managed by the Council, 854 of which were running without a licence while one was still being applied for. And of the 9,289 licensed food premises, 1,202 were rated C in terms of hygienic condition. This is a deep-rooted weakness resulting from the lack of supervision on the part of the Council and slack enforcement on the part of the Department.
The Democratic Party wishes to ask the Council to review thoroughly the policy of issuing licences to the food industry, with a view to setting up a pre-vetting system, whereby potential licence applicants may forward the relevant information to the Council and relevant departments for vetting so as to shorten the lead time for the issue of licence, to avoid the situation in which while waiting for the issue of the licence, the operator has to put up with expensive rent without being able to get business started, and to make up for the inadequacies of the prevailing temporary licences.
Meanwhile, the system of temporary licences should be extended beyond food shops to fresh food stores and food factories, under which the Director of Urban Services is empowered to close down unlicensed food premises and food shops which are atrocious in their hygienic condition. To facilitate public vigilance over the food industry, legislation should be laid down to require all food premises to display at the main entrance a notice showing that they hold a food licence issued by the Council. At present, operators are only encouraged to do so. It is not a statutory requirement. We should also announce the food premises' hygienic rating so as to invoke market forces in monitoring food hygiene.
At the same time, the aspect of public hygiene which members of the public are most concerned about is street-cleansing. On the issue of street-cleansing and cleanliness, the Democratic Party wishes to request that the Council should review the existing mechanism of contracting out supervision to private contractors so as to strengthen the work of street-cleansing and washing. The most important thing is to be fully involved in the supervision of the cleansing services of public housing estates. In this connection, several motions were carried by the Council in the past, including those on instituting prosecution against estate cleansing contractors who have violated the hygiene legislation.
Page 260 of 654
Page 260 of 654
Page 260 of 654
Page 260Page 261