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so if they would inform the Urban Services Department of any specific instances of misbehaviour appropriate action would be taken.
(16) MRS. E. ELLIOTT asked the following question :-
(a) What were the precise instructions given to resettlement officers in respect of illegal hawking on their estates? (b) Was any concession recommended for hawkers already established but unable to be accommodated in the regular hawker bazaars?
(c) Is there any senior officer delegated to make regular visits to all the estates to make recommendations on clearance or resiting?
THE COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT replied as follows:-
Until the 5th of July, 1966, my staff had no legal powers to control hawkers in resettlement estates. On that date this Council delegated certain powers to certain grades of officers in the estates and detailed instructions on how these powers should be exercised are being drafted. I propose shortly to consult the appropriate select committee on what we should aim to do about the management of hawker bazaars and the control of hawking in general. Meanwhile, officers have not yet been officially informed about their new powers nor instructed to exercise them. They are still operating under the old system whereby they have been encouraged to use their initiative in persuading hawkers to trade only in designated bazaars and from stalls of a regulation size. Hawker bazaars in the newer estates are planned initially to provide enough space for one stall to every 150 residents. When, in any particular estate, it becomes obvious that this number is insufficient, then existing bazaars are extended or new ones opened. Where repeated persuasion is ineffective in inducing hawkers to trade in the designated bazaars, the Police are asked for assistance and they co-operate with the estate staff in requiring hawkers to comply.
2.
As regards the second part of the question, in view of what I have already said, I doubt if many occasions arise where a licensed hawker is unable for long to obtain a place in a designated bazaar, at least in any but the oldest and most congested estates, and I would hesitate to encourage wholesale concessions if we are to prevent the newer estates from becoming as congested and over-run as the older ones.
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courage wholesale concessions if we are to prevent the newer estates from becoming as congested and over-run as the older ones.
The answer to the third part of the question is that all senior officers of the Estates and Areas division are expected to visit their estates as often as they can and to check that conditions are satisfactory. It is unnecessary for them to be consulted in advance about every hawker operation, although they must be consulted before an existing bazaar is extended or a new one opened.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, may I refer to the statement in the answer "meanwhile officers have not yet been officially informed about their new powers nor instructed to exercise them". Is it not correct that the officers in Sau Mau Ping and Kam Tin have already been exercising these powers?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-No, Mr. Chairman, strictly that is not so. No action other than attempting to persuade hawkers to keep within designated bazaars has been taken in either of these estates without the presence of the police.
MRS. ELLIOTT:—Mr. Chairman, may I ask the Commissioner if he knows that about a week ago less than a week ago certain persons actually went to the Sau Mau Ping Estate-sanitary coolies and police and demolished stores and even sawed some of the posts in two to prevent the hawkers from hawking, and told them if they had tin roofs they could not stand, if they had canvas roofs they could. But in actual fact, I wonder if the Commissioner knows that some of those with canvas roofs were demolished, and some with tin roofs were left standing?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-I am not aware of the statement regarding tin and canvas roofs. I am aware that on the 26th of August, after repeated advice and persuasion had failed, there was a small operation in one of the hawker bazaars in Sau Mau Ping estate to remove illegal hawkers from the passage ways in the bazaar in order to enable the public to get at the stalls, the legal stalls which were in the designated bazaar.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, may I refer the Commissioner to a section of the minutes of the Select Committee the Policy Management Select Committee, 6th October, 1965, paragraph 5. "Mrs. ELLIOTT at this point expressed the hope that Resettlement staff would be given detailed instructions as to the scope and limit of their powers in order to avoid continued complaints of the hawkers", and the Commissioner for Resettlement assured that all staff would be appropriately instructed.
Page 131 of 279
Page 131 of 279
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so if they would inform the Urban Services Department of any specific instances of misbehaviour appropriate action would be taken.
(16) MRS. E. ELLIOTT asked the following question : -
(a) What were the precise instructions given to resettlement officers in respect of illegal hawking on their estates? (b) Was any concession recommended for hawkers already established but unable to be accommodated in the regular hawker bazaars?
(c) Is there any senior officer delegated to make regular visits to all the estates to make recommendations on clearance or resiting?
THE COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT replied as follows:-
Until the 5th of July, 1966, my staff had no legal powers to control hawkers in resettlement estates. On that date this Council delegated certain powers to certain grades of officers in the estates and detailed instructions on how these powers should be exercised are being drafted. I propose shortly to consult the appropriate select com- mittee on what we should aim to do about the manage- ment of hawker bazaars and the control of hawking in general. Meanwhile, officers have not yet been officially informed about their new powers nor instructed to exercise them. They are still operating under the old system whereby they have been encouraged to use their initiative in persuading hawkers to trade only in designated bazaars and from stalls of a regulation size. Hawker bazaars in the newer estates are planned initially to provide enough space for one stall to every 150 residents. When, in any particular estate, it becomes obvious that this number is insufficient, then existing bazaars are extended or new ones opened. Where re- peated persuasion is ineffective in inducing hawkers to trade in the designated bazaars, the Police are asked for assistance and they co-operate with the estate staff in requiring hawkers to comply.
2.
As regards the second part of the question, in view of what I have already said, I doubt if many occasions arise where a licensed hawker is unable for long to obtain a place in a designated bazaar, at least in any but the oldest and most congested estates, and I would hesitate to en-
3.
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courage wholesale concessions if we are to prevent the newer estates from becoming as congested and over-run as the older ones.
The answer to the third part of the question is that all senior officers of the Estates and Areas division are ex- pected to visit their estates as often as they can and to check that conditions are satisfactory. It is unnecessary for them to be consulted in advance about every hawker operation, although they must be consulted before an existing bazaar is extended or a new one opened.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, may I refer to the statement in the answer "meanwhile officers have not yet been officially informed about their new powers nor instructed to exercise them". Is it not correct that the officers in Sau Mau Ping and Kam Tin have already been exercising these powers?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:--No, Mr, Chairman, strictly that is not so. No action other than attempting to persuade hawkers to keep within designated bazaars has been taken in either of these estates without the presence of the police.
MRS. ELLIOTT:—Mr. Chairman, may I ask the Commissioner if he knows that about a week ago less than a week ago certain persons actually went to the Sau Mau Ping Estate-sanitary coolies and police and demolished stores and even sawed some of the posts in two to prevent the hawkers from hawking, and told them if they had tin roofs they could not stand, if they had canvas roofs they could. But in actual fact, I wonder if the Commissioner knows that some of those with canvas roofs were demolished, and some with tin roofs were left standing?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-I am not aware of the state- ment regarding tin and canvas roofs. I am aware that on the 26th of August, after repeated advice and persuasion had failed, there was a small operation in one of the hawker bazaars in Sau Mau Ping estate to remove illegal hawkers from the passage ways in the bazaar in order to enable the public to get at the stalls, the legal stalls which were in the designated bazaar.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, may I refer the Commissioner to a section of the minutes of the Select Committee the Policy Manage- ment Select Committee, 6th October, 1965, paragraph 5. "Mrs. ELLIOTT at this point expressed the hope that Resettlement staff would be given detailed instructions as to the scope and limit of their powers in order to avoid continued complaints of the hawkers", and the Com- missioner for Resettlement assured that all staff would be appropriately instructed.
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