Eligible cloth hawkers at Yen Chow Street Temporary Hawker Bazaar who have chosen to stay in the trade will move to a nearby new venue to continue their business from tomorrow, after the bazaar closed at 5pm today.

The Food & Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) said that tenants who have practical difficulties in leaving will be handled on a discretionary basis in accordance with individual circumstances.

The bazaar, commonly known as “Pang Tsai”, has been closed in order to release surface land for public housing development.

The new venue is located at blocks 1 to 3 of Tung Chau Street Temporary Market which had suspended operation and was renovated earlier. It is only about 300m to 400m from the Yen Chow Street bazaar, and close to Ki Lung Street and Nam Cheong Street, where other cloth-related businesses are congregated.

With the provision of toilets, fire prevention systems and fans, plus a car park for loading and unloading goods nearby, the new venue in terms of facilities, stall sizes and surrounding facilities is better than the previous cloth bazaar, which was overcrowded.

The new venue provides 53 stalls. Sixteen eligible cloth hawkers attended the FEHD restricted auction of stalls last year with all the stalls let out at a monthly rent from $765, while the average rent is around $1,800 per month.

Another 12 vacant stalls were let out at the open auctions for public market stalls held in early December last year. These tenants will gradually move in from May 1.

The unleased stalls will be put up for open auction on February 7.

The FEHD said it has provided appropriate assistance to the cloth hawkers moving to the new venue, including allowing them to move in and renovate before the tenancy agreement starts.

The department also earlier reminded the vendors about the arrangements of applying for extra power supply.

Based on the arrangements of other markets, the FEHD provides lighting at the venue and installed an electric box which can provide an extra power source for the stalls at the end of last year.

The vendors can apply for extra power supply from the power company on their own if necessary.

The department stressed that it has all along been in touch with the stall operators on the arrangements for closing the bazaar.

It was scheduled for closure at the end of last year, however, noting that some of the stall operators wished to operate until the end of the Lunar New Year, the department decided to postpone the closing date to today.