CUPPAGE CENTRE (Vacant hawker stalls)

Dr Wong Kwei Cheong asked the Minister for the Environment (a) when did his Ministry decide to convert the vacant hawker stalls at Cuppage Centre to cooked food stalls; (b) when did the existing hawkers appeal against the conversion; and (c) what plans his Ministry currently has to fill the 148 vacant hawker stalls.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment (Mr Eugene Yap Giau Cheng) (for the Minister for the Environment): On behalf of my Minister, Sir.

In July 1981, a proposal was put up to convert vacant market produce stalls to cooked food stalls in order to accommodate licensed street hawkers. Cuppage Road Market, with 53 vacant market produce stalls, was included in this exercise.

The proposal was approved at an estimated cost of $266,000. However, the project to convert the 53 vacant market produce stalls to cooked food stalls in the Cuppage Road Market was shelved because of appeals made by the hawkers in June 1984. The cooked food stallholders objected to the proposal because they were concerned that the additional stalls would pose competition and affect their business.

Although the additional cooked food stalls were not built, the vacant market produce stalls remained frozen and to-date, there are 148 vacant stalls. The Cuppage Road Market has two levels of market produce stalls. The Ministry's intention is to upgrade the market by putting all the market produce stalls on one floor, thus freeing the other which could be leased out to private operators for other appropriate business.

Dr Wong Kwei Cheong (Cairnhill): Sir, can I ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary that the request by the Cuppage Road Market Stallholders Association for the vacant stalls to be converted for the sale of household wares and sundry goods be considered?

Mr Eugene Yap Giau Cheng: Mr Speaker, Sir, can I just have the question again?

Dr Wong Kwei Cheong: Sir, on 1st December 1983 the Cuppage Road Market Stallholders Association appealed through the MP to convert the empty vacant stalls for the sale of household wares and sundry goods. I am asking the Senior Parliamentary Secretary whether his Ministry would consider this request which was made in December 1983.

Mr Eugene Yap Giau Cheng: Mr Speaker, Sir, the hawkers appealed for lock-up stalls. At that point of time, when we were resiting the street hawkers, there were more than enough lock-up stalls to accommodate these hawkers who were selling different wares along the streets. There was therefore no need to convert them into lock-up stalls. As of today, there are still plenty of lock-up stalls around and therefore there is no need to convert any more market produce stalls to lock-up stalls.