TNAG-1363-FCO40-1809-Hong-Kong-Hansard-reports-and-minutes-of-the-meetings-of-the-1985 — Page 145

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Secretary for Transport:- It would of course not be suitable for

the se vehicles to stop at urban clearways as this would certainly

be dangerous. The only answer is to ensure that the schools themselves

whenever possible has an area off-street for the vans to go. As for

the other possibilities the only answer is to ensure that there are

side streets where the vans can stop safely.

Mr. Martin Lee:- Sir, from one of the

answers from the Secretary

for Transport it is apparent that 30 per cent of the operators of

these vans do not follow the guideline requiring someone to supervise

Is there any reason then why this

young children while travelling.

should not be obligatory by law?

Secretary for Transport:- Mr. Lee is quite right, this is not a legal

requirement although I believe the voluntary requirement has been

followed increasingly, as I said, over 75 per cent, and the number is

arising. Many of these vans have only seven or 14 seats and the economics

of them are such if they were required to pay for a full-time supervisor,

it might put them out of business and I'll try to assure this Council

that this present system is working well and I do not want to take the

risk of upsetting it.