Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1967-1968 — Page 44

hard-ware, at minimum prices. Hawking also provides a whole or part-time occupation through which many households can supplement their income, and a high proportion of hawkers are themselves resident in the estates. The many problems of estate management which they present were intensified during the year. The sale of food under unhygienic conditions, the difficulty of moving the stalls so that the area can be properly cleaned, damage to ground surfaces and to the walls of buildings, blocking of surface drainage channels with refuse, the competition they afford to shopkeepers with higher overheads, the occupation of much of the limited amount of open space available and originally intended for recreation or other purposes, and the creation of traffic hazards, are all well-known problems throughout the urban areas of Hong Kong. If the unfortunate results of hawking are more conspicuous in many of the estates, this is largely because of the greater reliance which the residents of such areas place on this form of marketing and because the hawker bazaars attract shoppers from adjacent built-up areas where circumstances do not offer the same opportunities to hawkers to set up their stalls. Although responsibility for controlling hawkers lies with the Urban Council and the Urban Services Departmen (including the Hawker Control Force where it is deployed) with the support of the Police Force, the Resettlement Department is inevitably closely involved. The Urban Council is considering plans for a new approach and a long-term solution to the problem; meanwhile, the department has consulted the Council on certain interim measures and is actively studying others with a view to improving the position without prejudicing the long-term plans.

ESTATE MANAGEMENT

97. Although the Commissioner for Resettlement is responsible for the management of resettlement estates in the New Territories, in the urban areas he acts as the agent of the Urban Council, which is the competent authority for this purpose. An Assistant Resettlement Officer is in immediate charge of each estate supported by varying numbers of Resettlement Assistants or Student Resettlement Assistants. Seven Resettlement Officers are each responsible for supervising a group of estates and they are in turn directly responsible to an Assistant Com- missioner, who is in overall charge of the Estates and Cottage Areas Division. There is a Senior Resettlement Officer in this division who is responsible for advising the Assistant Commissioner on all depart-

35

!