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HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
499
after their opening. There were frequent complaints against the design or maintenance of the new facilities. Indeed, our clients' confidence in the quality of the Council's service has been eroded,
Furthermore, I would like to point out that the Department often fails to implement the endorsed policy efficiently and effectively. During the Mid-Autumn Festival every year, we often witnessed many children hurt by the raging flame as they played with fire. Last year, the Council passed by-laws to prohibit 'wax-burning' in Urban Council venues, rendering law breakers liable to prosecution. A hot-line was also set up for the public to report any cases of 'wax-burning'. Mr. Chairman, I trust that we all agree the by-laws were not meant to prosecute the violators arbitrarily. But from last year's experience, we noted that these measures failed to curb 'wax-burning' effectively. Nor could the setting up of a hot-line address the problem. As far as the patrol of parks was concerned, it was apparent that the Urban Services Department was unable to patrol all parks due to a shortage of manpower. As a result, the task of dissuading the public from 'wax-burning' could not be accomplished. Prosecution of the law breakers turned out to be an empty talk. I hope that the Department could learn from last year's experience and deploy more patrol teams to carry out inspections for 'wax-burning' in the next Mid-Autumn Festival. In this way, it will show that the Department is determined to implement the policies drawn up by the Recreation Select Committee.
Having discussed the recreation matters, I would like to take this opportunity to talk about the problem pertaining to public health. Mr. Chairman, we have long been baffled by the problem of unlicensed food premises and hawkers. As a matter of fact, in my constituency, that is, Ngau Tau Kok district, I have received and dealt with many complaints about unlicensed restaurants and hawkers. Although the Department informed us that numerous raids and prosecutions had already been made, I doubt very much the effectiveness of these measures. As the resulting fines were relatively low, operators of unlicensed food premises and illegal hawkers might well have included them in their operation costs. In view of such judicial rulings which were beyond our jurisdiction, should we feel obliged to review the effectiveness of the Council's mechanism? In this connection, let us examine the issue of licences. Some Councillors have already proposed to set up a central licensing bureau to reduce the processing time. I think it's worthwhile to deliberate on the implementation of such a proposal, so as to avoid any delay caused by seeking approval of several Government departments. Meanwhile, in order to clamp down the operation of unlicensed food premises, I think the Department should consider taking immediate actions to close all unlicensed restaurants and to make a comprehensive review on this issue.
Turning to the problem of illegal hawking at public housing estates, I understand that the Department has taken joint actions with the Housing Department to eradicate illegal hawking. But as far as I know, such actions were merely a kind of passive response. The Department had little faith in
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