Hawkers
The two municipal councils maintain control over on-street hawkers. The
licensing of street hawkers in the urban area is the responsibility of the
Provisional Urban Council. At the end of the year, there were 8 892
licensed hawkers in the urban area - 308 fewer than in 1996. The
decrease was mainly due to the implementation of the Itinerant Hawker
Licence Compulsory Deletion Policy.
During the year, the hawker control teams in the urban area, comprising
1 958 civilian staff trained in law enforcement, secured 80 550 court
convictions for hawking offences by both licensed and unlicensed
hawkers. Due to stringent enforcement action, the number of unlicensed
hawkers reduced to about 3 740.
To better control the hawker problems in urban area during early morning
or late night hours, a special overnight shift for the Regional Task Forces
(formed by hawker control teams and directly under Regional command)
of the USD was made permanent in March 1997 after a review conducted
by USD and endorsed by the council.
Through constant vigilance and action, the RSD's 87 Hawker Control
Teams reduced the number of illegal hawkers in the Provisional Regional
Council area to 1 045 by the end of the year. About 1 388 hawkers held
valid licences during the year to operate either fixed pitches or on an
itinerant basis. The Provisional Regional Council has ceased issuing
hawker licences except for purpose-built cooked food stalls.
The RSD's Hawker Control Teams secured 36 457 court convictions for
hawking offences during the year by both licensed and unlicensed
hawkers. Hawker Handling Centres at Yuen Long, Tai Po and Sheung
Shui police stations proved a success in dealing with hawking arrest and
charging procedures and the RSD plans to extend this system to other
districts.
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