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SCMP Reporter

Q How do you think pedestrians fare  on the city's roads?

I am absolutely convinced the people at the Transport Department do not  drive. Look  how poorly road signs are placed - always much too late for most drivers to react safely. And who was the genius who spent millions to come up with the numbering of  roads?  I don't know a single driver who can understand those confusing numbers.

In typical government fashion, they refuse to listen to the public and/or professional opinions and stubbornly insist they are correct despite contrary evidence. I would not be surprised if there are  several serious accidents  before the  department will even consider listening to the experts.

Peter Kee, Happy Valley

Q Should charges be introduced to encourage recycling?

The government is proposing  to make it compulsory by implementing domestic and building charges  by 2010.

To many  in Hong Kong, recycling is  a new practice. We have just started  putting old newspaper into the brown bin,  soft drink cans into the blue one and plastic bottles into the yellow one. It  takes time for people to adjust. Take littering.  In the past, many people felt  looking for a trash bin was troublesome and we  simply threw our litter  somewhere.  Today, it is  different.

More practical measures can be considered to raise public awareness on recycling.  For instance, negotiate with property owners to increase the number of  recycling bins. I live  in a large housing estate in the Southern District. But  there is only one set of three bins for five blocks.  It is not convenient  and that's why no one uses them. But penalising people is not the way to encourage recycling.

Crystal Chan, Pok Fu Lam

Q Is it fair to force single-parent CSSA recipients to find work?

Many CSSA recipients, including single parents, enjoy  the good life. A single parent with a child of 12 or above, who requires little care at home,  receives a monthly payment of  HK$7,000 for doing nothing. Why should she not work? And those who refuse to comply with requirements have only HK$200 deducted.  This may be  a mahjong loss to some.

My husband and I have often heard  women, and also men,  laughingly declare how good it is to be supported by welfare. Why should they support themselves when they must also pay for  transport and other job expenses?

But we have also seen many old men and women who are scavengers. We ask them, why don't they apply for  welfare payments instead of working so hard? They tell us that as long as they are capable of supporting themselves, they feel much better.

Welfare payments for single parents and other recipients  should be cut by a substantial amount if these people  can look after themselves. The money saved could then be used for a better purpose. Why should hard-working taxpayers  support lazy and prideless people?

P. Souza, Tai Po

Q Should the Wan Chai street market be retained?

I am thrilled to see so much recent public attention about  preserving Hong Kong's built heritage, not least Yvonne Liu's  article  in the Property section ('Greens push to preserve history', October 4).

Despite destruction during the post-war decades of some pretty amazing architecture, a few gems do remain, but time is running out. Given the pressures of limited space and return on investment, there is little to prod corporate owners down the path of preservation and  ownership of heritage properties by civic-minded individuals is essentially out of the question in Hong Kong. Incentives are needed  to make preservation financially viable on a corporate level.

More than preserving structures and gardens,  it is important to consider neighbourhoods and the people in them. Wan Chai Market  has been a daily meeting  place for  seven decades and could continue to be so. Given the recent upscale residential development,  mixed with older buildings,  developers have a  range of incomes, wants and needs to tap into.

The possibilities  are too numerous to list, but range from an alternative market, a Singapore-style hawker's centre,  upscale cafe-boutique complex or senior citizen's centre, to a community outreach/education facility and more. It's the type of structure (low rise, tree-shaded, open air) that will never be built again in our big stone jungle.

Gregg Schroeder, Wan Chai

On other matters ...

I was fascinated and impressed with the vigour of Hong Kong's police officers as described in yesterday's  City section, ('Four saunas in the dock for selling sexual services'). But  your article left many questions unanswered. Why was it necessary for five 'undercover agents' to have sexual services a total of 100  times in only four  saunas to establish that anything illegal  happened?

Was there some difficulty in consummation of the transactions or were these  officers simply ensuring that the audit trail was rock solid and that everything would 'stand up' in court?

Presumably the officers involved reclaimed their expenses. One would not want to appear mean but these expenses must have been quite meaningful. Would somewhere between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars per encounter be right?

Clive Rigby



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