Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ4: Open-air bazaars

Following is a question by the Hon Vincent Fang and a reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (March 7):

Question:

Most of the cities in the world have bazaars with special characteristics which can offer various types of jobs and boost spending of tourists and local residents. However, the open-air bazaars in Hong Kong have incessantly been affected by town planning and have to be relocated, reduced in area or even scrapped. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether it has formulated any long-term policy on the retention or otherwise of open-air bazaars; of the numbers of existing open-air bazaars and shop operators and hawkers involved, as well as the estimated number of employees working in these bazaars;

(b) whether it knows if the authorities concerned, apart from relocating some of the stall hawkers in the open-air bazaars in Tai Yuen Street and Cross Street of Wan Chai this year, have any similar relocation plans in the future; if they have, of the bazaars involved and the details of such relocation plans; and

(c) given that the reasons for relocating some stall hawkers in the open-air bazaars in Tai Yuen Street and Cross Street are to enable refuse collection vehicles to access the Urban Renewal Authority's new development project in that area to collect refuse and to solve the problem of increased traffic brought by that development project, whether the Government will consider following the arrangement in Tai Yuen Street (south), and shorten the duration during which Cross Street (east) is designated as pedestrian zone to between 10 am and 6 pm daily, thereby allowing refuse collection vehicles and other vehicles to use Cross Street (east) during other time of the day and at the same time completely retaining the open-air bazaars in Tai Yuen Street and Cross Street?


Reply:

Madam President,

There are different forms of open-air bazaars in Hong Kong. Apart from bazaars comprising of licensed fixed hawker pitches, there are also open-air bazaars for celebrating festivals or featuring special themes (such as the Temporary New Year Market Fair beside Lam Tsuen, Tai Po), temporary open-air bazaars held by Government departments (e.g. District Offices) and various organisations (e.g. District Councils). While the Government understands that the public wishes to conserve customs and facilities with local colour, we must accept that every city inevitably undergoes an evolutionary process where new developments replace old ones. The Government will strive to strike a balance between public concerns and the needs for urban development. Provided that an open-air bazaar does not affect environmental hygiene, causes nuisance or obstruction and has the support of the District Council and the local community concerned, the Government will endeavour to retain the open-air bazaar. We will answer the questions raised by the Hon Vincent Fang as follows:

(a) The Government does not have the statistics of all open-air bazaars in the territory. Of the open-air bazaars comprising of Hawker Permitted Places for licensed fixed pitch hawkers under the supervision of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, 49 of them comprises of ten or more fixed hawker pitches and 13 of them are large open-air bazaars that have 100 or more licensed fixed hawker pitches. They are scattered around the districts of Eastern, Wan Chai, Central & Western on Hong Kong Island, Yau Tsim Mong and Sham Shui Po.

If individual redevelopment projects undertaken by the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) involve the relocation of fixed stall hawkers in FEHD's hawker areas, FEHD will co-operate with the URA, and discuss with the relevant District Councils and affected hawkers with a view to rendering assistance as appropriate, including the relocation of the affected hawkers. As regards the hawkers affected by other redevelopments and development projects, FEHD will also work with the relevant Government departments and bodies and make the appropriate arrangements.

(b) The redevelopment plan for Graham Street in Central unveiled by the URA recently shows that licensed fixed hawker pitches within the draft plan area may also be affected. As for the relocation plan for the open-air bazaar at Tai Yuen Street and Cross Street at Wan Chai, 80-odd fixed hawker pitches at Tai Yuen Street (North) and Cross Street (West) can stay put, which means the open-air bazaar will be conserved to some extent. The plan is intended to conserve the old open-air bazaar as far as possible while making room for new developments to improve the life and activities of the local community.

(c) The Government considers it necessary to relocate the fixed hawker pitches at Tai Yuen Street (South) and Cross Street (East) mainly because the roads are not adequate to meet the needs of rising population and pedestrian traffic generated by new residential and commercial development in the area. The relocation is not intended to resolve the access problem of refuse collection vehicles going to the refuse collection point at Cross Street. According to the traffic assessment analysis of the Transport Department, it is necessary to open up the road sections concerned for one way traffic to allow vehicles entering Tai Yuen Street (South) to access Queen's Road East by way of Cross Street (East) and Wai Chai Road. If these road sections are not opened for vehicular traffic, the traffic problems cannot be resolved and the situation of insufficient road capacity for meeting the needs of pedestrians and drivers will enhance the risk of traffic accident. Moreover, reducing the number of fixed pitch hawker will also help raising the standard of environmental hygiene, thereby improving the living environment of the neighbourhood. The relocation arrangement has balanced the interests of various parties and has been endorsed by the Wai Chai District Council.


Ends/Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Issued at HKT 16:03

NNNN