1974 — Page 179

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

As to helping the under-employed, has the Hawkers Select Committee considered that many places can be used in the evening so that they can set up a hawker stall at night. This will enable the under-employed to make a living.

MR. HU (in English):--I thank you, Mr. CHOW, for raising this question. We did take that into consideration. As a matter of fact, we are going to move the motion, some streets have hawkers only at night.

MR. HILTON CHEONG-LEEN (in English):-Mr. Chairman, will the Chairman of the Hawkers Select Committee confirm that when the idea of the Hawkers Permitted Areas was first mooted, the Hawkers Select Committee did point out to Government in very clear terms the possi- bility of having triad activities in the proposed hawker permitted areas? Will the Chairman of the Select Committee confirm that the Select Committee has already made on several occasions very strong repre- sentations to the Police to keep all the triad activities under control and has the Select Committee kept the situation under close attention?

MR. HU (in English):—I confirm it. But, Mr. Chairman, we are part of the Hong Kong Government. Naturally we will do our best to co-operate with the Government to make Hong Kong a good place.

MR. MACKENZIE (in English):—Mr. Chairman, could I just clarify how many streets are actually involved? I have a paper which says that in addition to the 15 streets originally proposed for gazetting, in fact, it shows a list of 16 streets to be gazetted during this week plus a list of seven other streets, so this makes a total of 38 streets.

MR. HU (in English):-There are a total of 23 streets. Mr. Chair- man, I will read out the name of the streets when I move the motion. (Laughter).

(4) MR. JOHN MACKENZIE asked the following question (in English):

What action is being or has been taken to prevent health and other nuisances caused by pig-breeding in the urban areas?

DR. DENNY M. H. HUANG, CHAIRMAN OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in Cantonese): —

Mr. Chairman, Piggeries, in the urban areas, are periodically inspected by Health Inspectors during house inspection duties to detect and abate nuisances. The anti-fly gangs

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of the department also make periodic inspections in ac- cordance with a fixed programme of dealing with fly breed- ing by knock down insecticides and direct action. Special operations by both District Health Inspectors and anti- fly gangs are conducted to deal with complaints arising from these areas.

Consideration is being given to amend the legislation to pro-

hibit the keeping of pigs in certain urban areas.

Mr. Chairman, I thank Mr. MACKENZIE for raising this ques- tion because I remember that five years ago I raised a similar question. As Mr. MACKENZIE also knows the Environmental Hygiene Select Committee always hopes to eliminate all pig-breeding in the urban areas and urge them to move to the New Territories. I am also very much concerned about this problem and hope that we can solve it.

MR. MACKENZIE (in English): -Mr. Chairman, I have a specific complaint from residents in Tin Hau Temple Road about pig-breeding adjacent to residential blocks of flats on the grounds that, particularly in the summer months, there is unpleasant odour, noise and large numbers of flies attracted. As it is the major aim of hygiene policy to press for eliminating pig-breeding in urban areas, can Dr. HUANG tell me whether anything can specifically be done on Tin Hau Temple Road, in general, what we might do to achieve a policy objective?

DR. HUANG (in Cantonese): —Mr. Chairman, pig-breeding in Tin Hau Temple Road has been carrying on for quite some years, even before Tin Hau Temple Road was developed. The U.S.D. staff has also taken a lot of action to eliminate nuisances arising from piggeries. This section of the road was originally assigned to the Urban Council, and trees and shrubs will be planted at the road-side but, at present, it has not been handed over to the Urban Council and, as far as I am aware, it is the duty of the Agriculture and Fisheries Department and the City District Offices to move these piggeries and these two departments agree that we should deal with this matter expeditiously. I would also like to add that I live in Kowloon and I am also a victim of pig-breeders. (Laughter) I have raised this question before, but I think that Government will take action to resite them only when the place is needed for re-development. Before this stage is reached, I regret to say that Mr. MACKENZIE and I will be disappointed for quite sometime to come.