1991 — Page 106

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

ADDRESS BY CHAIRMAN

CHAIRMAN (in English):-The meeting is called to order.

MINUTES

The minutes of meetings held on 14 January and 16 January 1992, were confirmed.

PAPER

The following paper was laid on the table:

(1) Report to the Urban Council by the Secretary, Urban Council, for the

month of January 1992.

QUESTIONS

1. MR. FUNG KWONG-CHUNG asked the following question (in Cantonese):- Many of the pedestrian subways in the urban area are very filthy and full of street sleepers, beggars and hawkers. Posters and bills are posted on the wall. All these have an adverse effect on environmental cleanliness. Can the Council do anything about it?

MR. MA LEE-wo, Vice-CHAIRMAN OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in Cantonese):—The question concerns the condition of pedestrian subways and the environmental problems caused by street sleepers, beggars, hawkers and unauthorised posting of bills and posters on walls of these subways.

The Department is responsible for sweeping pedestrian subways in the urban area whilst contractors of the Highways Department are responsible for cleansing the walls and ceilings. The frequency of sweeping varies from two to six times a day, depending on location and pedestrian flow, and is supplemented by regular washing. Litter containers are also normally provided in pedestrian subways. These measures are generally adequate to keep subway floor surfaces clean. However, the relevant District Hygiene Superintendent can always be contacted in case of need in order to arrange for additional cleansing work to be put in hand either by the Department's own staff or through the Highways Department, as appropriate.

Street sleepers and beggars are not the responsibility of the Urban Council or the Urban Services Department although the Department does participate in periodic operations co-ordinated by CNTA District Offices to tidy up those pedestrian subways in which the street sleepers and beggars tend to congregate.

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The Department continually takes arrest and seizure action arising from illegal hawking wherever this occurs, including pedestrian subways. With one or two notable exceptions such as the Star Ferry Pedestrian Subway in Central District to which the Department pays particular attention within available resources, subways do not generally give rise to particular enforcement difficulties as far as illegal hawking is concerned.

With regard to unauthorized commercial bills and posters on subway walls, these will normally be removed by the contractors of the Highways Department as part of their regular cleansing work. In addition, however, District staff of the Urban Services Department will also take action to remove such bills and posters if and when these are detected during regular inspections.

If members of the public have any specific compliants on these matters, I would advise them to ring up the USD Complaint Hotline No. 868 0000 which I am sure the matters will be dealt with.

2. MR. MA LEE-WO asked the following question (in Cantonese):---The problems caused by unlicensed hawking in the streets are evident to all. However, it seems that over the years, we have been at our wit's end in solving the problem, and the effect of raids on unlicensed hawkers launched by the Department is always questioned and criticized by the public. Meanwhile, according to my observation, the problem of unlicensed hawking tends to worsen recently.

I would like to ask:

(a) How many unlicensed hawkers are there in Hong Kong?

Does the number tend to increase?

(b) What strategies and methods are the Department taking to solve the problem

of unlicensed hawking? What is the effect?

(c) Are there any measures to achieve the goal of significantly reducing the

number of on-street unlicensed hawkers?

MR. CHAN TAK-CHOR, CHAIRMAN OF THE MARKETS AND STREET TRADERS SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in Cantonese):-It concerns the control of unlicensed hawkers. This is a three-part question and is very wide-ranging in its scope. In this reply, I will concentrate on the major issues involved for the sake of brevity.

The first part of the question concerns the size of the unlicensed hawker population in Hong Kong and asks whether it tends to increase. In fact, annual Departmental headcounts show a consistent decline in the illegal hawker population, which has more than halved over the past six years from about 16 000 in 1985 to some 6 500 at December 1991.

The second part of the question asks what strategies and methods are adopted to solve the problem of unlicensed hawkers. The Departmental strategy in the implementation of hawker control measures has been to concentrate cfforts in the following high priority areas:

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