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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Despite all these factors, the Department has been making strenuous effort to resolve the problem of hawker blackspots. The average number of arrests per year against illegal hawking is approximately 50,000. In addition to control and enforcement actions taken by our Hawker Control Squads, well-organized hawker resite/re-ordering plans coupled with the commissioning of new markets carried out by the Department have helped to eliminate some major hawker blackspots one after another. In recent years, successful examples can be seen in Pei Ho Street in Sham Shui Po, Marble Road and Chun Yeung Street in North Point, Bulkeley Street in Hung Hom and North Street in Western District. The Department will continue with the work.
That it is difficult to totally eliminate all hawker blackspots is not due to the inefficiency or poor performance of our squads. It is partly a reflection of the factors I have already mentioned. Indeed, the Department has introduced various measures to seek to enhance hawker control efficiency. These include the formation of the new Hawker Control Officer grade to replace the General Duties Team in May 1994; the flexible adjustment of the working hours and shift pattern of our squads; the introduction of the legal requirement for licensed hawkers to wear licence badges to enable easy identification; computerization of hawker conviction records for the references of the Court prior to sentencing; legislative amendments to raise the maximum penalties for hawking offences and to lay additional charges for illegal hawkers selling cooked food; use of improved communication equipment to enhance operational mobility; and enhanced training programmes for hawker control staff, and so on.
As mentioned above, the proposed staff increases over the next five years are for budgetary planning purposes only. At this stage, the Department cannot say exactly how many additional posts or squads will actually be justified over the forecast period, although the Paper on Projected Increases in Posts issued to the Administration Select Committee on 25 June 1996 gave some preliminary indication of new posts likely to be required in 1996/97. It is expected that similar papers will be issued periodically. There will be critical examinations by the Department in the light of changing circumstances and the actual situations in line with established departmental practice to ensure that additional posts are fully justified before any submission is made to the Administration Select Committee and Finance Select Committee.
The number of licensed hawkers in recent years has dropped by more than one-third from 14,184 in 1990 to 9,147 in June 1996. Over the next few years, some 400 hawkers holding licences for fixed pitch are expected to be resited into 12 new markets. Furthermore, assuming the successful completion of the scheme to compulsorily delete the whole category of Itinerant Hawker Licences (IHL), the remaining 1,129 IHL holders will all have surrendered their licenses in a year or two. This would suggest a further reduction in the licensed hawker population of 17% to 7,600.
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Page 202 of 498
198
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Despite all these factors, the Department has been making strenuous effort to resolve the problem of hawker blackspots. The average number of arrests per year against illegal hawking is approximately 50 000. In addition to control and enforcement actions taken by our Hawker Control Squads, well organized hawker resite/re-ordering plans coupled with the commissioning of new markets carried out by the Department have helped to eliminate some major hawker blackspots one after another. In recent years, successful examples can be seen in Pei Ho Street in Sham Shui Po, Marble Road and Chun Yeung Street in North Point, Bulkeley Street in Hung Hom and North Street in Western District. The Department will continue with the work.
That it is difficult to totally eliminate all hawker blackspots is not due to the inefficiency or poor performance of our squads. It is partly a reflection of the factors I have already mentioned. Indeed, the Department has introduced various measures to seek to enhance hawker control efficiency. These include the formation of the new Hawker Control Officer grade to replace the General Duties Team in May 1994; the flexible adjustment of the working hours and shift pattern of our squads; the introduction of the legal requirement for licensed hawkers to wear licence badges to enable easy identification; computerization of hawker conviction records for the references of the Court prior to sentencing; legislative amendments to raise the maximum penalties for hawking offences and to lay additional charge for illegal hawkers selling cooked food; use of improved communication equipment to enhance operational mobility; and enhanced training programmes for hawker control staff, and so on.
As mentioned above, the proposed staff increases over the next five years are for budgetary planning purposes only. At this stage, the Department cannot say exactly how many additional posts or squads will actually be justified over the forecast period although the Paper on Projected Increases in Posts issued to the Administration Select Committee on 25 June 1996 gave some preliminary indication of new posts likely to be required in 1996/97. It is expected that similar papers will be issued periodically. There will be critical examinations by the Department in the light of changing circumstances and the actual situations in line with established departmental practice to ensure that additional posts are fully justified before any submission is made to the Administration Select Committee and Finance Select Committee.
The number of licensed hawkers in recent years has dropped more than one- third from 14 184 in 1990 to 9 147 in June 1996. Over the next few years, some 400 hawkers helding licences for fixed pitch are expected to be resited into 12 new markets. Futhermore, assuming the successful completion of the scheme to compulsorily delete the whole category of Itinerant Hawker Licences (IHL), the remaining 1 129 IHL holders will all have surrendered their licenses in a year or two. This would suggest a further reduction in the licensed hawker population of 17% to 7 600.
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