1972 — Page 29

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, if Mrs. ELLIOTT has a complaint or any representation to make in regard to any particular street or area, I am sure the Select Committee, of which she is a member herself, would be glad to study whatever she wishes to put forward.

MRS. ELLIOTT:--All right, Mr. Chairman, may I take the offer. Could we put the problem of pedlar hawkers operating according to the licence conditions in Resettlement Estates, because they are being thrown out, whilst illegal static hawkers, who have been operating like shopkeepers, have been given priority. Could we discuss this, please?

MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, I think in due course this will be considered both by the Hawkers Select Committee and by the Resettlement Select Committee.

(3) MRS. E. ELLIOTT asked the following question :-

Hawkers who have been registered, ballotted and allocated sites in the new resite bazaars in resettlement estates are still receiving police summonses for illegal hawking. Could the department concerned clarify please?

MR. PETER C. K. CHAN, CHAIRMAN OF THE Resettlement SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows:

I am informed that Police action against resited hawkers in estates has been confined to those selling cooked food, meat and fish. I should explain that the Resettlement department has simply re-ordered in tidy, compact areas the confused mess which was formerly spread over the open spaces in these estates. Such resiting in no way absolves any hawker from the need to get such licence as the law may require for his activity. Our existing legislation does not, however, permit the issue of a licence to hawk meat and fish.

These resites are of course only a temporary phase in our programme for providing proper marketing facilities in the estates. These facilities will include licensable accommodation for traders in meat and fish.

MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, seeing that the Secretary approached me on the kind of hawker I was referring to, could Mr. CHAN clarify why he is gabbling about meat and fish when it does not come into the question?

MR. CHAN:-I understand it has been pointed out that the police only arrest and prosecute those selling cooked food, meat and fish.

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, I have a letter here. CHAIRMAN:-You are asking a supplementary?

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MRS. ELLIOTT:—Yes, I am asking a supplementary, but I have to clarify first. I have got a letter here from the Resettlement Department talking about a certain lady who was offered Site No. 10 to operate cooked food in the Tsz Wan Shan Resettlement Estate. The allocation was made on the 15th November.

Can the Chairman tell me why this lady after being allocated No. 10 pitch was prosecuted by the police for obstruction and illegal hawking?

CHAIRMAN:---If that had been your original question it would have been answered, Mrs. ELLIOTT. As it is, I need notice of it.

MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, it is that question.

MR. CHAN: Mr. Chairman, if Mrs. ELLIOTT will hand me the letter, I will see that it will be dealt with accordingly.

MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, I referred it to the judiciary where it belongs, but I wanted this Council to clarify somehow.

MR. CHAN:-It will be clarified in committee.

MRS. ELLIOTT:-I hope you are not going to go on skirting over questions in this way.

(4) MRS. E. ELLIOTT asked the following question:-

(a) How long have flats earmarked for decantation been lying empty in new estates like Tsz Wan Shan, Pak Tin and Sau Mau Ping?

(b) What is holding up the processing of tenants due for decantation to these estates?

MR. PETER C. K. CHAN, CHAIRMAN OF THE Resettlement SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows:-

At Tsz Wan Shan Estate, 6,000 places (not rooms) were earmarked for external decantation purposes. These places are in Block 1, 2 and 3, which were taken over by the Resettlement Department in March 1971, and Block 53 which was taken over in September 1971.

1,350 places were earmarked in Sau Mau Ping Estate for external decantation, and these are in Block 21, 24 and 25 which were taken over in February 1971 and in Blocks 22 and 23 which were taken over in March 1971.

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