Periscope
Control of street promotion urged to cut nuisance
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He said the government could also extend the illegal hawking legislation to the selling of services. But he reckoned that it would be a complicated task, as the law would have to be specific in defining which kinds of street promotion activities would be allowed.
He said the government probably did not want to amend the law because it did not find promotion activities have caused a serious problem.
Another spokeswoman for the FEHD did not say if the government had any plans to strengthen the regulation or enforcement action against street sales pitches. She only said that they would pass on nuisance and obstruction cases involving such activities to the district councils and district management committees for discussion.
Different actions taken
Other than the problem of legal loopholes, Varsity has witnessed how the standard of enforcement action against street promotion activities varied on two consecutive Sundays at Sai Yeung Choi Street South .
On the first Sunday evening, the FEHD team confiscated the promotion materials from street promoters during an inspection along the street to enhance road safety and improve the pedestrian environment.
On the next Sunday evening, a team of five hawker control officers inspected the same pedestrian zone and gave verbal warnings only to the street salespeople for obstructing the road. The promoters then folded their banners, closed their stands and sat aside. The officers refused to say why they did not confiscate the promotion materials like the previous Sunday when they were later approached by Varsity.
About 15 minutes after the hawker control team had left, the salespeople reset their promotion stands and the hawker control officers were not seen again that night.
The FEHD staff confiscate promotion materials from
street promoters.
