1985 — Page 51

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

matters under the Urban Council Ordinance. If the Urban Council and Secretary for Municipal Services do not see eye to eye, the Director of Urban Services is therefore in a dilemma as to which master he should serve, sacrifice his personal career in the Civil Service for the sake of the public or do less for the public and hope that his own promotional prospects will be accelerated. I refer to the position of the Director of Urban Services, nothing personal about very good friend Mr. CHUI,

CHAIRMAN (in English): As far as I am concerned as Chairman of the Urban Council, the Director of Urban Services has full responsibility which exercises its statutory responsibility in setting policies and it is up to the Council to ensure that those policies are carried out to the full.

MR. LAWRENCE FUNG (in English): Mr. Chairman, I have one supplementary written out before I ask the other supplementary and that is in fact the Urban Council is responsible for monitoring and making sure the Urban Council's powers are not eroded.

CHAIRMAN (in English): There are select committees which are fully responsible and in case there is a need to have the matter discussed further, there is the Standing Committee of the Whole Council and where necessary these matters can be fully discussed at public meetings.

MR. SAMUEL WONG (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, we do have a noise pollution control division within our Urban Services Department, is it still under its jurisdiction?

DR. THE HONOURABLE KIM CHAM (in Cantonese): I will have to check before I can really answer this question because details need to be ascertained.

4. MR. SAMUEL P. W. WONG asked the following question (in Cantonese): In some of the scores of concerts recently held at the Hong Kong Coliseum, many ended beyond the scheduled time. As a result, staff of the Coliseum had to work overtime late into the night. It is said that at one concert, when the performances were ended, the doors opened, and some of the audience were leaving, the singer chose to return to the stage to sing some more songs. In the circumstances, it would be liable to cause chaos. I should like to know if the Department has carefully considered the matter and reached an understanding with the performers so that such incidents would not recur again.

MR. STEPHEN M. L. LAU, CHAIRMAN OF THE ENTERTAINMENT SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in Cantonese): Before each concert, operational meetings are held between the hirers and the Coliseum management and an approximate finishing time is agreed. Often this scheduled time is not adhered to. In spite of the resulting inconvenience, the Coliseum's staff appreciates that flexibility is necessary in order not to dampen the atmosphere of the concerts.

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Recently this flexibility has been rather over-stretched. In the incident mentioned, the audience was in the process of dispersing and large numbers converged on the gangways. When the singer made his surprise re-appearance, there were genuine worries that the chaos might result in accidents.

In the light of that incident, hirers have now been requested to adhere more accurately to their scheduled finishing time, and to ensure that the performing artists will also be advised personally. As a further safeguard, we are considering introducing a requirement that public performances must finish by 1:30 a.m. It is then up to the organizers to time the duration of their performances and adjust the commencement time as necessary.

MR. JOSEPH Y. S. CHAN asked the following question (in Cantonese): May I know what is the number of vacant stalls in Urban Council markets during the period from July 1984 to the end of July 1985? In view of the many vacant stalls in UC markets, does that signify that the rental is more than what an average hawker could bear so most of them would prefer to be unlicensed street-hawkers instead of operating their business legitimately inside the markets? How to review and assess the realistic level of the new rental charged for tenancies in UC markets?

Mrs. E. Elliott Tu, CHAIRMAN OF THE MARKETS AND STREET TRADERS SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in English): This question concerns the number of vacant stalls in Urban Council markets and the level of rental charges for tenancies.

The monthly average number of vacant stalls in Urban Council markets during the period from July 1984 to July 1985 is 717. This figure, when compared with the monthly average total of 7,523 stalls provided in the UC markets, represents an average vacancy rate of approximately 9.5 per cent. Most of the vacant stalls are on upper floors or on 'blind corners'.

The causes for the unsatisfactory occupancy rate of stalls in Urban Council markets are many and varied. The location of the markets within the district, and of the stall within the market, competition from nearby hawkers and fresh provision shops, design and accessibility of the market, as well as the rent are all, among other things, considered to be important contributory factors relating to the viability of a market, which in turn has a direct bearing on the occupancy rate of the stalls provided therein. It is generally accepted that, of all these factors, market design and location, rather than the rent, are the most significant in this respect.

The Working Party set up by the Council to review hawker and related policies is well aware of the importance of market viability in relation to any successful resiting of hawkers off-street into UC markets. A review on the design and construction of future UC markets, including the types of hawkers...