1983 — Page 28

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

MR. YOUNG (in Cantonese):-No. Just now, from the answer, it was mentioned using space as cultural centre. I just want to clarify that when we looked at the plan, it was found that not far from there, an area had been earmarked for a cultural centre.

MR. Lo (in English):—Mr. Chairman, this particular site is shown as district open space and we will develop it as open space for recreational development either rest-gardens or playing fields or things of that sort. I am afraid we did not consider building a community hall or cultural centre there. There may be a plan to build a cultural centre very close by, but I don't think the committee, as far as I recall, took this community hall into consideration.

CHAIRMAN (in English):-I think Mr. Lo's answer is substantive enough, but he is giving the history of this particular site and unless there are other supplementary,... (interrupted).

DR. HUANG (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, Mr. Lo mentioned that the plans for the project were approved in 1979. In other words, 4 years will have passed by the time work commences in June. Is it true that we have to wait for 4 years for all our projects? Can we speed up these projects a little bit?

CHAIRMAN (in English):—We are first discussing this particular site, but would you like to answer, Mr. Lo?

MR. Lo (in English):--Well, it is 4 years and it is a long time. But it's by no means the longest time it has taken for us to do any particular project. (laughter) I could certainly hope that we can speed things up.

MR. LAWRENCE FUNG (in English):—Mr. Chairman, if I may, can I clear the record on this point. It was held up by clearance of squatters, not because we failed to implement the project as quickly as we should.

3. MR. HOWARD H. W. YOUNG asked the following question (in Cantonese):- In order to help relieve congestion on pavements and streets, and in the interest of food and environmental hygiene, what plans does the Urban Council have to resite on-street cooked food stalls?

How long will it take and how much will it cost to resite all on-street cooked food stalls into markets?

Does the Council have any plans to speed up the process and also make it less costly to the ratepayer?

MR. SHUM CHOI-SANG, CHAIRMAN OF THE MARKETS AND STREET TRADERS SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in Cantonese):—This question concerns what plans the Council has to resite on-street cooked food stalls.

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

The Council's policy is to resite as many on-street cooked food stalls as possible into permanent off-street cooked food facilities, either as part of new market complexes or into purpose-built cooked food centres. To help facilitate implementation of this policy, resitees are granted the concessionary treatment of being invited to bid for new stalls in cooked food centres by restricted auction. In so doing, such operators are in fact being given a hidden subsidy by the Council.

There are at present 782 licensed cooked food stalls on street in the urban area excluding those in hawker bazaars and public housing estates. The Urban Council's market development programme plans provision for 549 cooked food stalls over the next five years. That means if all on-street cooked food stalls are to be moved into cooked food centres, 233 additional stalls will still be needed. It is not possible to find some suitable sites for cooked food centres in these densely built-up areas. At today's prices the construction cost of a single stall in a cooked food centre is between about $150,000 and $200,000, which does not include the cost of land and administration and management costs. Therefore, the cost of resiting all on-street cooked food stalls into markets would be well over $100 million. As I have mentioned, licensed cooked food operators are indirectly subsidized when they move into cooked food centres in market complexes. The subsidy is quite substantial because of the lower rentals received by Council arising from restricted auctions where the upset price is appreciably lower than the fair market rental.

In view of the heavy resiting commitment, the high cost of constructing markets, and increasing public concern over nuisances caused by on-street cooked food stalls, Council has now decided on a more effective, co-ordinated strategy to reduce on-street cooked food stalls more substantially and more quickly without necessarily waiting for the completion of off-street facilities. This strategy has been formulated after a detailed study by the Department into the operation of on-street cooked food stalls. This study has highlighted, amongst other things, that about 50% of the licensees are over 65 years of age and are unlikely therefore to be personally operating their stalls as required under the Hawker By-laws. It is very likely that many of these licensees have illegally sublet their stalls contrary to the conditions of their licence. Having regard to these findings and the recent decision to discontinue 'succession' of Licences to persons other than operating spouses of licensees, Council is now adopting a three-pronged approach to the problem of on-street cooked food stalls.

First, sublessee operators are being strongly encouraged to bid for cooked food stalls as and when they become available in markets, cooked food centres and in public housing estates. The change in the 'succession' policy should encourage these unlicensed operators to legitimize their status if they wish to continue in the line of business to which they have become accustomed.

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