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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
If, in the New Territories, there is no organization similar to the Urban Council, it is most likely that by 1984 when all New Territories District Board Members and Chairmen have been elected, an organization in the form of 'Federal District Board' will be formed, officially or unofficially, because there are often circumstances under which cases have to be handled jointly by different District Boards, and under which exchanging of views and co-operation are desirable. If the Urban Council is not expanded to cover the New Territories, a separate organization in the form of 'Federal District Board' may come into existence in the New Territories.
Hawkers
As regards the problem of hawkers, some people may feel unhappy about hawkers being mentioned to them, because they often find that the pavements of busy streets are occupied by hawker stalls, impeding pedestrian movement and the traffic. The presence of hawkers constitutes a major problem in Hong Kong.
In the past two years, the Urban Council has made great efforts to implement hawker re-ordering schemes aiming at better control of hawkers who are causing a nuisance to environmental hygiene and impeding the traffic.
Generally speaking, the Urban Services Department, with its present staff resources, can only focus its attention on the areas which hawkers are known to have clustered round. The job for ensuring smooth traffic flow is left to the Police.
In the first half of the year, the first phase of hawker re-ordering scheme involving five districts in Hong Kong and 19 Hawker Permitted Areas in Kowloon was completed. As the system of Hawker Permitted Areas has been cancelled, all hawkers in the former permitted areas have been re-allocated fixed pitches by ballot with licences issued to them. In this way, they can operate business without feeling fears for interference. Besides, they are no longer harassed by triad elements.
The hawker re-ordering scheme has led to the issue of 5,437 new fixed-pitch licences, comprising 2,078 on Hong Kong Island and 3,359 in Kowloon.
At present, the hawker re-ordering exercises are still going on. Besides those 19 Hawker Permitted Areas in Kowloon as mentioned above, Ping Shek area has also been included in the hawker re-ordering scheme. Before long, implementation of the re-ordering scheme will be extended to cover the areas of Wong Tai Sin and Hong Kong Island.
The implementation of the hawker re-ordering scheme has so far involved seventy-four streets on both sides of the harbour. As no suitable alternative sites are available to resite the hawkers, some of the hawker concentrations have not been dealt with.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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The re-ordering scheme is beneficial to most hawkers, particularly to those who are unlicensed. However, due to a bit of hard luck at the time of drawing lots, some of those who have been hawking at thriving spots are allocated to comparatively remote pitch sites at which they are bound to feel aggrieved.
Those who are dissatisfied with the allocation of remote sites, those who are not fully qualified for licences, those who are newcomers to the hawking trade and those who do it as a sideline will probably all go into the main streets and do hawking, thus causing obstructions to the traffic and affecting the cleanliness of those places.
Although it is part of the police duties to ensure a smooth traffic flow in thoroughfares, the police are often so busy with other more important duties that they can hardly have spare capacity to control hawkers. As the General Duties Teams of the Urban Services Department are also understaffed, they, too, can hardly cope with the hawking situation in the thoroughfares. Consequently, it is a common scene that the hawkers are playing a game of 'hide and seek' with the Police. This is a problem that has to be solved, without delay.
In the urban area, there are 12 General Duties Teams each with 131 members. There are 5 teams on Hong Kong Island and 7 teams in Kowloon with a total strength of 1,572 men. There are 11 urban services districts on both sides of the harbour and each district is manned by one General Duties Team. The remaining team is stationed at the Kowloon Regional Headquarters.
With one General Duties Team in each district, there is an obvious shortage of staff because we have to make allowance for those who are on vacation and sick leave. They are divided into two groups working in shifts. On average, there are usually 60 men in each shift, but in the case of Wong Tai Sin, there are only 54 men in each shift.
In the Eastern District, for example, there are 60 members in each shift, but they have to cover hawker concentrations at Chai Wan, Shau Kei Wan, Sai Wan Ho, North Point and Causeway Bay. The average number of team members deployed to each hawker concentration, I am afraid, is less than ten. Besides keeping the hawkers in good order, they are also responsible for keeping the hawker concentrations clean. Their duties are very heavy.
To tackle the most vexatious problem with insufficient staff resources, the result is hardly satisfactory. The Urban Council should spare no time to consider the need for either increasing the manpower and efficiency of the General Duties Teams or transferring part of the hawker control duties to the Police or some other Government departments. Otherwise, the problem of controlling unlicensed hawkers can hardly be solved. At present, there are 31,000 licensed and 15,000 unlicensed hawkers in the urban area.
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has been removed as it is not part of the original text, the last line should be "Page 99 of 14" is also incorrect and should be left as is "Page 99 of 146" at the end of the document. The corrected output is as above.Page 99 of 146
154
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
If, in the New Territories, there is no organization similar to the Urban Council, it is most likely that by 1984 when all New Territories District Board Members and Chairmen have been elected, an organization in the form of 'Federal District Board' will be formed, officially or unofficially, because there are often circumstances under which cases have to be handled jointly by different District Boards, and under which exchanging of views and co- operation are desirable. If the Urban Council is not expanded to cover the New Territories, a separate organization in the form of 'Federal District Board' may come into existence in the New Territories.
Hawkers
As regards the problem of hawkers, some people may feel unhappy about hawkers being mentioned to them, because they often find that the pavements of busy streets are occupied by hawkerstalls, impeding pedestrian movement and the traffic. The presence of hawkers constitutes a major problem in Hong Kong.
In the past two years, the Urban Council has made great efforts to implement hawker re-ordering schemes aiming at better control of hawkers who are causing a nuisance to environmental hygiene and impeding the traffic.
Generally speaking, the Urban Services Department, with its present staff resources, can only focus its attention on the areas which hawkers are known to have clustered round. The job for ensuring smooth traffic flow is left to the Police.
In the first half of the year, the first phase of hawker re-ordering scheme involving five districts in Hong Kong and 19 Hawker Permitted Areas in Kowloon was completed. As the system of Hawker Permitted Areas has been cancelled, all hawkers in the former permitted areas have been re-allocated fixed pitches by ballot with licences issued to them. In this way, they can operate business without feeling fears for interference. Besides, they are no longer harassed by triad elements.
The hawker re-ordering scheme has led to the issue of 5 437 new fixed-pitch licences, comprising 2078 on Hong Kong Island and 3 359 in Kowloon.
At present, the hawker re-ordering exercises are still going on. Besides those 19 Hawker Permitted Areas in Kowloon as mentioned above, Ping Shek area has also been included in the hawker re-ordering scheme. Before long, implementation of the re-ordering scheme will be extended to cover the areas of Wong Tai Sin and Hong Kong Island.
The implementation of the hawker re-ordering scheme has so far involved seventy-four streets on both sides of the harbour. As no suitable alternative sites are available to resite the hawkers, some of the hawker concentrations have not been dealt with.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Page 99 of 146
155
The re-ordering scheme is beneficial to most hawkers, particularly to those who are unlicenced. However, due to a bit of hard luck at the time of drawing lots, some of those who have been hawking at thriving spots are allocated to comparatively remote pitch sites at which they are bound to feel aggrieved.
Those who are dissatisfied with the allocation of remote sites, those who are not fully qualified for licences, those who are newcomers to the hawking trade and those who do it as a sideline will probably all go into the main streets and do hawking, thus causing obstructions to the traffic and affecting the cleanliness of those places.
Although it is part of the police duties to ensure a smooth traffic flow in thoroughfares the police are often so busy with other more important duties that they can hardly have spare capacity to control hawkers. As the General Duties Teams of the Urban Services Department are also understaffed they, too, can hardly cope with the hawking situation in the thoroughfares. Consequently, it is a common scene that the hawkers are playing a game of 'hide and seek' with the Police. This is a problem that has to be solved, without delay.
In the urban area, there are 12 General Duties Teams each with 131 members. There are 5 teams on Hong Kong Island and 7 teams in Kowloon with a total strength of 1 572 men. There are 11 urban services districts on both sides of the harbour and each district is manned by one General Duties Team. The remaining team is stationed at the Kowloon Regional Headquarters.
With one General Duties Team in each district, there is an obvious shortage of staff because we have to make allowance for those who are on vacation and sick leave. They are divided into two groups working in shifts. On average, there are usually 60 men in each shift, but in the case of Wong Tai Sin, there are only 54 men in each shift.
In the Eastern District, for example, there are 60 members in each shift, but they have to cover hawker concentrations at Chai Wan, Shau Kei Wan, Sai Wan Ho, North Point and Causeway Bay. The average number of team members deployed to each hawker concentration, I am afraid, is less than ten. Besides keeping the hawkers in good order, they are also responsible for keeping the hawker concentrations clean. Their duties are very heavy.
To tackle the most vexatious problem with insufficient staff resources, the result is hardly satisfactory. The Urban Council should spare no time to consider the need for either increasing the manpower and efficiency of the General Duties Teams or transferring part of the hawker control duties to the Police or some other Government departments. Otherwise, the problem of controlling unlicenced hawkers can hardly be solved. At present, there are 31000 licenced and 15000 unlicenced hawkers in the urban area.
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