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Following is a question by the Hon Vincent Fang and a reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (January 23):
Question:
The hawker permitted area (HPA) located at Tung Choi Street (commonly known as "Women's Street") in Mong Kok has 1,052 fixed-pitch stall positions, but owing to natural attrition or voluntary surrender of licences for cancellation, there were 321 vacant stalls at Women's Street as at mid 2007. The situation of vacant stalls at Women's Street has given rise to a number of problems, including difficulties in attracting people to the sections with a relatively high vacancy rate, which affect the business of the stalls there; vacant stalls being occupied by unlicensed hawkers, with many of them selling pirated goods, which tarnishes Women's Street's or even Hong Kong's retail business image; and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department prosecuting hawkers in HPA for illegally occupying adjacent vacant stalls, which has even led to confrontations between the two sides recently. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective number of prosecutions instituted last year by the Government against illegal hawking, sale of pirated goods or illegal extension of business area at Women's Street; and
(b) of the arrangements to be made by the Government regarding the above vacant stalls, whether it will plan to reduce the area of Women's Street; or whether it will arrange hawkers in other districts to operate those stalls; if there are no plans for the time being to arrange other hawkers to operate those stalls, whether the Government will consider leasing, through short-term tenancies, the above vacant stalls to the hawkers operating the adjacent stalls, so as to revitalise Women's Street, until it makes other arrangements regarding the usage of those stalls?
Reply:
Madam President,
The Tung Choi Street Hawker Permitted Places, located at the section of Tung Choi Street between Argyle Street and Dundas Street, is one of the large on-street licensed hawker sites under the management of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD). It has 1,052 fixed-pitch stall positions and is a shopping attraction for many local people and tourists.
(a) Officers of the hawker control team (HCT) under the FEHD are deployed to conduct hawker control at the Tung Choi Street Hawker Permitted Places and take enforcement actions against non-compliant licensed hawkers and unlicensed hawkers every day under the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap 132) and its relevant subsidiary legislation. The FEHD will conduct joint operations with other departments to maintain good order in the Hawker Permitted Places as necessary.
In 2007, a total of 568 prosecutions were instituted by the FEHD for the offence of extending the business area beyond the stall boundary and causing public obstruction in the Tung Choi Street Hawker Permitted Places and two batches of goods left by hawkers were seized. No illegal hawking was found in the above Hawker Permitted Places in that year.
The Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) is responsible for taking enforcement actions against pirated goods and maintains close contact with the FEHD in this regard. The two departments will carry out joint operations if necessary so as to institute prosecution against offenders under relevant legislation. In 2007, the C&ED cracked down on a total of 146 cases involving stalls selling pirated goods at Women's Street and seized 29 167 pieces of goods which are worth about $1.64 million. A total of 47 people were arrested in these operations.
(b) As at January 10, 2008, there were a total of 329 vacant fixed-pitch stall positions in the Tung Choi Street Hawker Permitted Places. Most of them were located in the rear. Of these vacant stall positions, nine were reserved for temporary use by licensed fixed-pitch hawkers who had to relocate their stalls due to development works, road construction, traffic or environmental improvement projects in the district. The remaining 320 vacant stall positions were available for use by holders of itinerant hawker licences (IHLs) under the voluntary surrender scheme of IHLs. At present, the FEHD has no plan to reduce the area of the Tung Choi Street Hawker Permitted Places.
Under the existing policy, a hawker licence holder will only be allocated one hawker stall to ensure that each hawker will be equally provided with a business operating area. Leasing the vacant stalls to the hawkers operating the adjacent stalls through short-term tenancies may give rise to grievances from the traders over the overall arrangement of stall allocation and other hawkers may also demand for extending their stall area. In addition, shop owners in the neighbourhood may have reservation over the de facto extension of the hawkers' stall area. The Food and Health Bureau and the FEHD are jointly conducting a review on hawker licensing policy, in the context of which the efficient use of vacant fixed-pitch stall positions will also be explored. We plan to consult the Legislative Council Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene on our preliminary proposal in the middle of this year. Besides, the FEHD will maintain regular dialogue with the representatives of traders in the Tung Choi Street Hawker Permitted Places to explore ways to improve the management of the Hawker Permitted Places.
Thank you Madam President.
Ends/Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Issued at HKT 12:40
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