1996 — Page 484

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

MR. IP Kwok-Chung (in Cantonese):—If Mr. Lai finds it necessary to, I promise to follow up at the meeting of the Markets and Street Traders Select Committee.

IV. MOTIONS

(1) MR. LEE KWOK-KEUNG moved as follows:—‘RESOLVED that before planning whether to build a new market, the Council should conduct a feasibility study on factors such as viability of the new market, shopping habits of citizens, competition from shop traders and hawkers in the vicinity, accessibility of the new market and need for resiting street traders etc. to ensure that the new market will be commercially viable and meet the shopping needs of citizens.’

He said (in Cantonese):—I want to move a motion today as follows:

RESOLVED that before planning whether to build a new market, the Council should conduct a feasibility study on factors such as viability of the new market, shopping habits of citizens, competition from shop traders and hawkers in the vicinity, accessibility of the new market and need for resiting street traders etc. to ensure that the new market will be commercially viable and meet the shopping needs of citizens.

Let me tell you why I am moving this motion today. We received some months ago a report prepared by the Director of Audit on a value for money study. It touches on an issue we find important. That is about the planning and development of markets. The Director of Audit thinks the present situation is a result of the Department not having followed the established policy and planning of the Council.

Perhaps I will cite some examples given in the report. First of all, the purpose and principle of providing markets are to put into order and resite on-street hawkers, control and improve the hawking situation and satisfy public need for shopping.

In 1987, the Urban Council published the report and recommendations of the working party on UC market traders. It suggested providing suitable places for traders to operate and that viability of the markets should be an important factor for considering the construction and operation modes of markets. Markets should no longer be considered as a means to resite hawkers, but they should be built in accordance with need and district planning. In the conclusion of the report, it was pointed out that building a market which was not viable and therefore could not be operated fully would be a waste of public money. That was the point given in the report of 1987, but over the years, the Department did not put into practice the principle set by the Urban Council. The Department often made resiting street hawkers the one and only principle for construction of new markets. As a result, there is an oversupply of market stalls.

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