Page 103 of 136
172
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
(b) To license the wall stall hawkers;
(c) To remove all hawkers near the newly built markets; and (d) To increase the hawker licence fees so as to reduce the deficit in hawker management.
Another major problem concerning hawkers which has been discussed in the Urban Council many times last year is how to deal with those hawkers in the Hawker Permitted Areas.
General Duties Teams
The Hawker Control Force was first established in 1960 with an intention to relieve the Police of the responsibility for hawker control. But since its inception, the number of staff in the Force was found to be too small to handle 31,000 licensed hawkers together with a much larger number of unlicensed hawkers. At that time, people had much sympathy with all classes of hawkers, even though some of them were occupying spaces in the junctions of main roads, obstructing traffic and creating much disturbance to the shop-keepers and residents in the neighbourhood. Wherever the Hawker Control Force took any step to regulate those hawkers who were non-co-operative with the Authorities, the public and the mass media always accused the Force.
As the Force was too small in number to control all hawker concentrated areas and as time passed on, it did not get a good image from the public. In view of all these factors, the Urban Council decided to re-organize the Hawker Control Force.
In April 1979, the Hawker Control Force was disbanded and 12 General Duties Teams established, each team consisting of 142 members.
Because these 12 General Duties Teams have been newly formed, they had to be given training and to undergo restructuring whenever necessary. Consequently, a special training centre for the General Duties Teams was set up in Aberdeen. The team members would be better trained and be more efficient in carrying out their duties.
Recently, the Council has tried to find out how to restructure the formation of the General Duties Teams so as to improve their efficiency. It is found that more foremen are required.
The present structure of the General Duties Teams requires continued training, review and restructure if necessary.
Whether the force should be increased or reduced depends on whether hawkers are co-operative or not. If hawkers can be self-disciplined and behave themselves, there will be less complaint from the neighbouring residents, the Traffic Department and the Fire Services Department. Then the force should be reduced in size.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Page 103 of 136
173
The main duties of the G.D. Teams are to keep the hawkers in order and to clean the hawking areas after their business session in the evenings. Arrests and to put hawkers in court would be the last resort for a foreman to do. The Urban Council hopes that either most of the hawkers may have a chance to be removed into markets, or hawkers can trade according to what the law permits.
Some people may think that the Council has spent too much money on G.D. Teams. If there was no such force to control the hawkers, the number of hawkers might increase tremendously in a short time and the junctions of busy roads might be occupied by hawker stalls. The problem will become more critical at once. This is beyond the endurance and patience of any prosperous society.
What the Council wants is an effective force to control and to make the hawker situation more tolerable.
Wall Stalls
In order to regularize the wall stalls, the Urban Council allows those established wall stalls to be licensed provided that there is no serious obstruction being caused to pedestrian traffic or scavenging operations, and the size of a stall should not occupy more than half of the width of the pavement or lane.
But the licensing of wall stalls is a manpower consuming exercise as many applications for these wall stalls do not meet the criteria laid down for the issue of such licences.
There are only about 600 wall stall licences which had been issued out of a total of 3,204 applications. The reasons for the difficulties to issue a licence are mainly due to the stall size and to the problem of its being on private land.
Markets
One of the major aims of Urban Council policy is to get hawkers off the streets and move them into markets or bazaars. During last year, the Urban Council had built two multi-purpose markets to accommodate all hawkers in the vicinity. One is the Yue Wan Market in Chai Wan and the other, the Bowrington Road Market in Wan Chai.
In both markets, there are stalls selling fish, meat and poultry, as well as mini-stalls for vegetables and sundry goods as well as a cooked food stall centre.
As there are sufficient mini-stalls for all hawkers in the neighbourhood, the Urban Services Department has successfully removed all those hawkers into these markets. General Duties Teams are always on duty to keep hawkers off the streets around these areas. Environmentally, there is a distinct difference before and after the resiting of hawkers.
Page 103 of 136
Page 103 of 136
172
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
(b) To license the wall stall hawkers;
(c) To remove all hawkers near the newly built markets; and (d) To increase the hawker licence fees so as to reduce the deficit in hawker
management.
Another major problem concerning hawkers which has been discussed in the Urban Council many times last year is how to deal with those hawkers
in the Hawker Permitted Areas.
General Duties Teams
The Hawker Control Force was first established in 1960 with an intention to relieve the Police of the responsibility for hawker control. But since its inception, the number of staff in the Force was found to be too small to handle 31,000 licensed hawkers together with a much larger number of unlicensed hawkers. At that time, people had much sympathy with all classes of hawkers, even though some of them were occupying spaces in the junctions of main roads, obstructing traffic and creating much disturbance to the shop-keepers and residents in the neighbourhood. Wherever the Hawker Control Force took any step to regulate those hawkers who were non-co-operative with the Authorities, the public and the mass media always
accused the Force.
As the Force was too small in number to control all hawker concentrated areas and as time passed on, it did not get a good image from the public. In view of all these factors, the Urban Council decided to re-organize the Hawker Control Force.
In April 1979, the Hawker Control Force was disbanded and 12 General Duties Teams established, each team consisting of 142 members.
Because these 12 General Duties Teams have been newly formed, they had to be given training and to undergo restructuring whenever necessary. Consequently, a special training centre for the General Duties Teams was set up in Aberdeen. The team members would be better trained and be more efficient in carrying out their duties.
Recently, the Council has tried to find out how to restructure the forma tion of the General Duties Teams so as to improve their efficiency. It is found that more foremen are required.
The present structure of the General Duties Teams requires continued training, review and restructure if necessary.
Whether the force should be increased or reduced depends on whether hawkers are co-operative or not. If hawkers can be self-disciplined and behave themselves, there will be less complaint from the neighbouring residents, the Traffic Department and the Fire Services Department. Then the force should be reduced in size.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Page 103 of 136
173
The main duties of the G.D. Teams are to keep the hawkers in order and to clean the hawking areas after their business session in the evenings. Arrests and to put hawkers in court would be the last resort for a foreman to do. The Urban Council hopes that either most of the hawkers may have a chance to be removed into markets, or hawkers can trade according to
what the law permits.
Some people may think that the Council has spent too much money on G.D. Teams. If there was no such force to control the hawkers, the number of hawkers might increase tremendously in a short time and the junctions of busy roads might be occupied by hawker stalls. The problem will become more critical at once. This is beyond the endurance and patience of any
prosperous society.
What the Council wants is an effective force to control and to make the hawker situation more tolerable.
Wall Stalls
In order to regularize the wall stalls, the Urban Council allows those established wall stalls to be licensed provided that there is no serious obstruction being caused to pedestrian traffic or scavenging operations, and the size of a stall should not occupy more than half of the width of the pave-
ment or lane.
But the licensing of wall stalls is a manpower consuming exercise as many applications for these wall stalls do not meet the criteria laid down for the issue of such licences.
There are only about 600 wall stall licences which had been issued out of a total of 3,204 applications. The reasons for the difficulties to issue a licence are mainly due to the stall size and to the problem of its being on private land.
Markets
One of the major aims of Urban Council policy is to get hawkers off the streets and move them into markets or bazaars. During last year, the Urban Council had built two multi-purpose markets to accommodate all hawkers in the vicinity. One is the Yue Wan Market in Chai Wan and the other, the Bowrington Road Market in Wan Chai.
In both markets, there are stalls selling fish, meat and poultry, as well as mini-stalls for vegetables and sundry goods as well as a cooked food stall
centre.
As there are sufficient mini-stalls for all hawkers in the neighbourhood, the Urban Services Department has successfully removed all those hawkers into these markets. General Duties Teams are always on duty to keep hawkers off the streets around these areas. Environmentally, there is a distinct difference before and after the resiting of hawkers.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.