Trying to keep illegal hawkers off street
I REFER to the letter headlined, ''Pollution a real problem'' (South China Morning Post, May 4) from J. Chan, concerning the environment in Chun Yeung Street.
This street is one of the busiest streets in North Point and formerly was a major hawker blackspot in Eastern district.
Then the street was lined up with three rows of hawker stalls and had a licensed hawker population of 338 plus many unlicensed hawkers, thus creating many traffic and environmental problems.
To improve the situation, the new Java Road Market and Electric Road Market were built by the Urban Council which enabled re-siting of all the licensed wet goods hawkers into the markets, and the re-ordering of all the licensed dry goods hawkers on-street.
The re-siting and re-ordering exercise was carried out in March, 1993, resulting in tremendous improvements in this area.
At present the licensed dry goods hawkers are temporarily accommodated in only one row along the northern side of Chun Yeung Street and will be re-sited permanently to the southern side upon the completion of re-surfacing of the road by the Highways Department.
This re-surfacing work is expected to start in August and be completed by the end of this year. It is expected that the general condition in Chun Yeung Street will be further improved upon completion of the roadworks.
In respect of hawker control, officers of the Hawker Control Team perform static patrol duties between 8am and 1pm, and 2.30pm to 9pm, to curb illegal hawking activities and shop extensions.
During the past six months, our enforcement officers have made 170 arrests and taken action in 19 cases of seizure concerning illegal hawking and hawking obstruction charges.
Five summonses have been served on fixed pitch hawkers for placing commodities and equipment outside their pitches while 123 offenders were prosecuted for illegal extension of shop premises. Finally, 102 litterbugs were also booked.
To maintain the cleanliness of this area, special clean-up operations are mounted every Thursday, in addition to the routine street-washing and daily sweeping service.
Staff of this department will continue to keep the location under close observation and every effort will be made to maintain the street free from illegal hawkers and obstruction as far as possible.
Should your reader require further information on this matter, he is welcome to contact the undersigned at 563 4534 or Mr Yeung Kam-wu, Chief Health Inspector (Eastern) 2 at 563 4538.
LING SHIU-HUNG District Hygiene Superintendent (Eastern) for Director of Urban Services
