1991 — Page 113

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Council indeed spends a great deal of money and a great deal of manpower to deal with illegal hawkers. However, whilst there are many complaints over illegal hawkers, the hawkers themselves are only there because members of the public patronize them. It is a Hong Kong tradition that people should be allowed to operate businesses in a free market; on the other hand, illegal hawkers tend to clog the streets, preventing their use as thoroughfares. In some cases, they provide a ready environment for unhygienic practices and prevent shops and other legitimate ratepayers from earning their living by blocking their access.

I am afraid that in many cases, the hawkers regard the fines they receive in courts and even the loss of their goods as part of their business expenses. It is a fact that hawkers, when arrested by our General Duties Teams, mean that the officers themselves are tied up in legal, administrative, and court proceedings for several hours on the following day or days. Thus, in some ways, the more hawkers that are arrested, the fewer officers will be on the streets the following days. Often, dispersal is the most effective tactic, but one that does not show up in the statistics.

Mr. Mok Ying-fan suggested that we should think of some other system for dealing with illegal hawkers other than the General Duties Teams. There have been, over the years, many attempts at various other ways of dealing with hawkers. Some years ago, we even had a uniformed and disciplined Hawker Control Force. This, however, proved not to be effective. However, we have not given up. Both the Council and the Department are trying hard to deal with the situation, particularly with the Hon. Mrs. Tu's working party. We are currently studying proposals to reorganize the GD Teams and intensify action at particularly notorious hawker blackspots. We are now considering the introduction of a team of flying tactical squads to perform operations in various districts. This is intended to operate largely in the late evening. In the long term, I am sure that we will achieve good results, although I think it will be asking too much to expect the streets to be totally cleared of illegal hawkers.

One or two Members also asked that the Council's fees and charges be removed from the potential threat of being subject to the intervention of Legislative Council. This threat has always, in theory at least, been present. However, the Legislative Council has never, to the best of my knowledge, intervened in the Council's approved bylaws and fees.

The Urban Council, being certainly as much a democratically elected body as the Legislative Council, should have its bylaws and fee proposals judged by the public at elections and should not have its decisions scrutinized by another partially elected body. I support moves to regularize the situation in this respect. Over the years, the Council has proved to be a sensible and pragmatic organization not given to excesses or passing unreasonable subsidiary legislation, and there would appear to be no reason to have some kind of overriding power vested in the Legislative Council.

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If it is thought that the Council may at some future date be given to excesses, which I sincerely doubt, the Urban Council Ordinance gives powers for the Governor to give the Council directions of a general character as to the discharge of its functions, and I think that in itself is a sufficient safeguard. To this end, the Hon. Marvin Cheung, who championed this cause, has been appointed Chairman to head a working group to study the strategy and implementation to solve this problem.

Several other Members expressed concern over the effects of the proposed sky rail affecting Urban Council facilities, and indeed Mr. Vincent Chow gave a list of 14 facilities which, in one way or another, would likely be affected by the proposed project. I agree with those Members who find that the public good which may be generated by the sky rail will be more than cancelled out by the routing as proposed by the developers, as it would deprive the public of the enjoyment of the few green areas we have provided in the Yau Tsim area and pose noise pollution threats to our main cultural facilities.

Mr. Daniel Wong, the Chairman of the Liquor Licensing Board, outlined the various problems in licensing these liquor premises and studied the question of the Liquor Licensing Board having limited powers to look into the background of clubs which appear to be little more than a front for unlicensed restaurants or bars, and other such establishments, like karaoke, which cause public nuisances due to the noise they generate and not because they sell alcoholic drinks. This has wide implications, and I am sure the Council, the Department, and the Government will look into this matter. In this regard, some guidelines have been drawn up to assist members in the deliberation during the process of the formulation of a consistent and fair licensing policy.

Some members suggested that our public libraries should be computerized as soon as possible so as to improve our services to the public. I am happy to say that comprehensive plans for library computerization have been approved by the Council and that the project will be implemented at full speed.

It is gratifying to note the useful suggestion by the Hon. Man Sai-Cheong that it is our Council's bounden duty to make the city green. Although we have an ongoing tree-planting program throughout the years, we are going to give an extra push in our forthcoming civic event to plant 110 trees to celebrate our 110th anniversary. This will be followed by more intensive tree-planting efforts.

The Chairman of the Administration Select Committee and the Public Relations Subcommittee, Mrs. Eleanor Ling, gave a succinct report on the plans and programs for the Council's PR strategy to enhance public understanding of different aspects of the Council's work; for example, all our select committee meetings are now open to the public to further increase our transparency. The duty roster system is part of the ongoing campaign to supplement the existing individual ward systems of some of our Councillors and to enable the public to air their views regarding the services and facilities provided by the Council. To mark our 110th anniversary, we are about to launch a series of civic events.

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