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HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
if they are prosecuted once a month, it is still better than merely paying the rent without operating. If such a situation persists, it will be difficult to ensure the hygiene standards of the food provided by the food premises in Hong Kong. In the circumstances, I think that the Council should introduce some measures in future.
The first measure is to issue some specific licensing guidelines including the pre-requisites for food licence applications by various kinds of premises. Or information on what kind of premises with what facilities will definitely fail to meet the licensing conditions. Such guidelines should be issued and be widely publicized so as to assist potential operators in identifying suitable shop premises.
Secondly, the Council should arrange for staff secondment from other government departments for a period of two to three years pending the establishment of a licensing authority. These seconded staff will be deployed to work for a committee-like licensing body to be set up by the Council to deal with licensing matters vigorously. As the time required for communicating and handling correspondence with other departments will then be reduced, the licensing efficiency can be enhanced.
Thirdly, after implementing the above two measures, a pledge should be made by setting a reasonable licensing time and let the licence applicants know that within the specified time, say a month, they will be able to obtain a licence. In this way, the applicants will be aware of the specific licensing time required. Of course, some food operators are not keen to apply for a licence or will act sluggishly during the application process even after the introduction of these three measures. Further adjustments are therefore required. In my opinion, we should perhaps consider enforcing immediate close-down action against those illegal food premises that do not even apply for a provisional licence. Or we can go further to reject the applications from these illegal food operators so as to educate the general public and prospective food operators that they should apply for a licence in compliance with the law in order to operate a legal premises that meet hygiene standards to serve the public.
The second issue that I would like to bring up is the hawkers problem. The problem of illegal hawkers has long been disturbing the Council and many local communities including Sham Shui Po. Many residents are complaining that illegal hawkers have caused environmental health problems. Although it seems that the Council has spent a lot of money in tackling the hawkers issue, there is no obvious result. In my opinion, we should review the strategy adopted by the General Duties Team in clearing illegal hawkers. Secondly, we should tighten the internal discipline of the General Duties Team. And thirdly, the existing rules or ways of punishment on illegal hawkers should be reviewed where consideration can be given to enforcing immediate prosecution by summons so as to forestall the deterioration of the illegal hawking problem. Besides, there are also problems with the on-street fixed pitch stalls. Residents