A spokesman for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) said on June 9 that in order to tackle the illegal shop extension and obstruction problems, the FEHD and the Police formally launched the second phase of the trial scheme since June 7 (Tuesday) in Sham Shui Po, Yuen Long, and Eastern Districts, to conduct joint operations with new enforcement strategy.
The FEHD and the Police launched the first phase trial scheme in Kowloon City, Kwun Tong and Tsuen Wan Districts in late September last year. Apart from stepping up prosecutions against offenders, the Police would exercise its statutory powers in removing obstructions and require the owner of the goods to remove the obstructed articles within a specified time. If the owners of the goods fail to observe the directions given by the Police, the FEHD would arrange to remove the obstructions (including goods), which were placed in public places including roadside and carriageways. As the concerned District Councils, local stakeholders, and the public had very positive comments on the first phase trial scheme which brought significant improvement to the problems of shopfront extension, the Government decided to launch the second phase of the trial scheme, extending the joint FEHD-Police operations to Eastern, Sham Shui Po, and Yuen Long Districts.
Under the new enforcement strategy, if obstructions in public places or carriageways were caused by goods illegal extending from shops, the offenders of the related shops would be prosecuted. Apart from that, the Police would issue a warning notice under section 32(1) of Summary Offences Ordinance (Cap. 228) specifying the time limit for removal of the goods. If the offenders failed to remove the goods within the time limit as specified by the Police, the FEHD would then remove the goods for temporary storage. During the joint operations of the FEHD and the Police in the past three days in the abovementioned three districts, the FEHD has issued a total of 50 fixed penalty notices or summonses, the Police have issued a total of 21 warning notices which required the owners of the articles to remove the obstructions within the specified time. Among those, 18 warning notices had yet to be complied with upon expiry of the specified time limits. The FEHD had hence removed about four tonnes of goods or articles.
The spokesman for the FEHD reminded shop operators and other stakeholders not to extend business areas illegally by placing goods or articles in public places or on carriageways causing obstructions to pedestrian and vehicular flow. The spokesman stressed that the FEHD and the Police will continue to take stringent enforcement action during joint operations, and appealed to shop operators not to defy the law.
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