ENG-1988 — Page 198

HEALTH

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The Regional Council is responsible for the management of public markets in its region. There are 45 public markets with a total of 4 622 market stalls and 386 cooked food stalls under its management. Two new markets, the Tsuen King Circuit Market in Tsuen Wan and the Kwai Shun Street Cooked Food Market in Kwai Chung will be commissioned in early 1989, providing an addition of 302 market stalls and 12 cooked food stalls.

Hawkers

The Urban Council is responsible for the licensing of street hawkers in the urban areas and also maintains an enforcement organisation in respect of hawker offences. In June, the council issued 18 845 hawker licences, 1 668 less than in 1987. The reduction was mainly due to the continued effort of the council to move on-street hawkers into newly-completed markets. The ex-gratia payment scheme, which began in June 1987 for licensed cooked food operators who surrendered their licences for cancellation, also helped to reduce the number of licensed hawkers. In mid-1988, there were about 11 100 unlicensed hawkers, some 1 300 less than the number in 1987. The decrease was due mainly to intensified enforcement action by the General Duties Teams against illegal hawkers, together with prospects of higher wages in the commercial and industrial sectors.

Following the recommendations of the Urban Council's Working Party on Hawker and Related Policies, hawker licensing policy was relaxed. As a first step, the council began issuing licences since early 1988 to newspaper hawkers, some of whom are itinerant and some unlicensed. The issue of other classes of licences to hawkers will depend largely on the availability of suitable sites identified to be viable and publicly acceptable.

To achieve more effective management, the council completed its computerisation of all hawker licensing particulars in April. Plans are in hand to computerise conviction records of both licensed and unlicensed hawkers for possible use in courts.

The management and control of hawkers in the Regional Council area are the responsibility of the Regional Council. In 1988, there were 2 906 licensed hawkers in the Regional Council area, a drop of 303 compared with 1987. There were 1 696 unlicensed hawkers.

Through the deployment of general duties teams, who number 888 men, the Regional Services Department maintains control over the hawker situation. Although there are illegal hawking blackspots in the new towns, the problem is generally contained, and the number of licensed hawkers is gradually declining as more and more of them are given sites in new markets.

The Regional Council has a firm policy of not issuing any new hawker licences, except Fixed Pitch (Newspaper) Hawker Licences.

Abattoirs

The Urban Council's two abattoirs at Kennedy Town on Hong Kong Island and at Cheung Sha Wan in Kowloon continued to supply the bulk of the fresh meat. During the year, 2 206 000 pigs, 121 000 head of cattle and 12 000 goats were slaughtered in the abattoirs.

Proposals for the privatisation of Urban Council abattoirs have been accepted in principle and are being studied further. Meanwhile, efforts were focused on drawing up terms for negotiations with the trade and abattoir staff concerned. Upon privatisation, running of the slaughtering service in the urban area would be handed over to private operators but this would not affect the Urban Council's meat inspection duties at these abattoirs.