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As winter is approaching and the weather is dry and the fire risk is high, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) reminds stall operators in fixed-pitch hawker areas to remain highly vigilant and observe various regulations for good practices to minimise fire hazards. The department also appeals for their collaboration to further enhance the fire safety of various hawker areas through the Government's assistance scheme.
A spokesman for the FEHD said today (November 29) that the department has implemented a series of short-term measures over the past two years following the fire at the Fa Yuen Street hawker area. They have included requesting hawkers to strictly comply with the requirements about stall area, stall canopies, materials and no overnight storage of commodities after business hours.
Furthermore, to effectively control the potential fire risks in hawker areas, the Government has established a Steering Committee on Hawker Management, chaired by the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene (DFEH) and Hawker Management Consultative Committees (HMCCs) covering all hawker areas. A sanction mechanism targeting recalcitrant offenders which would lead to suspension or cancellation of hawker licences was also implemented.
Regarding medium-term and long-term measures, the Government considered it necessary to enhance fire safety of hawker stalls and improve the overall layout of hawker areas by relocating hawker stalls in front of staircase discharge points of adjacent buildings or possibly obstructing emergency vehicular access and/or operation of aerial ladders.
To this end, the Government obtained funding approval of $230 million from the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council in March this year for implementing a five-year assistance scheme to provide financial assistance to some 4 300 hawkers in the 43 fixed-pitch hawker areas for expediting in-situ stall reconstruction or relocation to reduce fire risks in the hawker areas.
In addition, an ex-gratia payment is offered under the assistance scheme for voluntary surrender of hawker licences. This would help release vacant pitches and hence facilitate the relocation of stalls which pose higher fire risks.
The spokesman said, "The assistance scheme has obtained fruitful results since it was rolled out in June. Up till now, some 200 hawkers have surrendered their licences. The FEHD has also received 78 applications for stall relocation and 67 for in-situ reconstruction.
"Among the 43 hawker areas, other than five in which no stall relocation is required, 25 out of the remaining 38 hawker areas, including Li Yuen Streets East and West, have come up with feasible plans or achieved substantive progress on relocation arrangements with the co-operation of the stall operators."
However, in some hawker areas with higher fire risks like Jardine's Crescent, despite different proposals put forward by the FEHD and continuous liaison with the stakeholders, no real progress has been made over the relocation arrangements, which the spokesman said was very disappointing.
"The department understands that some stall operators will be affected by the relocation arrangements. Hence, three proposals to relocate the stalls have been put forward so far for stall operators to consider. Since some stalls in Jardine's Crescent would obstruct access of aerial ladder vehicles in rescue operations, lives and properties of nearby residents face the risk of serious consequences in case of fire. Relocation of the stalls concerned is therefore inevitable. Should no substantive progress be made on the relocation arrangements at Jardine's Crescent after a reasonable period of time, the DFEH will consider exercising his statutory power under Section 34(1) of the Hawker Regulation to order the licensees concerned to vacate the pitches within a specified period of time following notice of not less than 15 days," the spokesman said.
The FEHD, the spokesman said, will keep an open mind and will continue to liaise proactively with the hawkers of various hawker areas, the relevant District Councils and HMCCs, and listen to their views regarding different geographic and surrounding environments, on-the-ground situations, operation uniqueness and other factors of various districts for formulating pragmatic and acceptable relocation plans as early as possible.
FEHD staff will further step up inspection and enforcement in autumn and winter and take out prosecution against stall operators who breach the regulations and cause obstruction, he said.
Ends/Friday, November 29, 2013
Issued at HKT 14:45
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