A spokesman for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) said today (October 6) that the FEHD and the Hong Kong Police Force (the Police) have started a series of stringent enforcement actions since October 3 in which joint operations have been conducted in Kowloon City, Sham Shui Po, Tsuen Wan, Kwun Tong and Yuen Long against shop operators and other stakeholders illegally placing goods or articles in public places or on carriageways, thereby causing an obstruction to pedestrian and vehicular flow.
The spokesman said that, during the joint operations in Kwun Tong and Sham Shui Po yesterday (October 5), the FEHD issued 36 fixed penalty notices or summonses against obstructions in public places and for cleanliness offences, and removed about 5.25 tonnes of waste in the above-mentioned districts. In addition, a total of two warning notices, which require the owners of the articles to remove the obstructions within a specified time were also issued by the Police, but have yet to be complied with. The FEHD had hence removed about 170 kilograms of goods or articles involved. Furthermore, one person was arrested by the FEHD during the operation for illegal hawking and causing an obstruction by the related shop in a public place, and 8kg of related commodities were seized.
The FEHD and the Police also conducted joint operations in Kowloon City and Yuen Long today, and will also adopt such an enforcement mode gradually this month in other districts so as to fortify the effectiveness of enforcement actions against shop front extensions.
The main focus of the second month of the Government Programme on Tackling Hygiene Black Spots is to combat hygiene black spots with illegal shop front extensions leading to street obstructions. Under the joint enforcement mode, if obstructions in a public place or carriageways were caused by articles illegally extending from shops, the offenders concerned would be prosecuted. Apart from that, the Police would issue warning notice under section 32(1) of the Summary Offences Ordinance (Cap. 228) specifying the time limit for removal of the obstructions (including goods). If the offenders failed to remove the obstructions within the time limit as specified by the Police, the FEHD would then remove the items for temporary storage.
The spokesman appeals to shop operators and other stakeholders not to extend business areas illegally by placing goods or articles in public places or on carriageways causing an obstruction to pedestrian and vehicular flow. The FEHD and the Police will continue to closely monitor and take stringent enforcement actions to tackle the shop front extension problem.
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