Chief Executive Donald Tsang has inspected several Food & Environmental Hygiene Department facilities for an update on hawking control, cremation and columbarium services, and public toilet hygiene.

He began today's visit at the Wong Tai Sin District Environmental Hygiene Office where he met directorate officers and members of the Hawker Control Team. He was briefed on improvement measures for hawking activities, particularly the introduction of a mandatory training course for all team members to enhance their skills in handling incidents.

"It is not an easy task to control hawking activities but the department's frontline staff have been working very hard to serve the public," Mr Tsang said.

Site inspection: Chief Executive Donald Tsang inspects Food & Environmental Hygiene Department facilities and chats with frontline staff.

Crematorium services

Mr Tsang also visited the Diamond Hill Crematorium and was briefed on a project to reprovision the crematorium with six new cremators and a full range of ancillary facilities. The project is set for completion next year.

Reprovision work is also planned for cremators at Wo Hop Shek and Cape Collinson Crematorium. Nearly 11,000 new niches are being built at columbaria at Cape Collinson, Kwai Chung, Wo Hop Shek and Cheung Chau to meet the ever-increasing demand.

In the longer term, the department will build more niches at some existing columbarium sites and a new site at Tuen Mun Area 46 to cope with public demand.

"I know that the department has been conducting consultations on the new facilities. I call on the community and the District Councils to give their support to these projects," Mr Tsang said.

Public toilets

Mr Tsang also inspected the Hong Keung Street Public Toilet in San Po Kong where refurbishment works have been carried out.

It has adopted modern design features, including automatic infra-red sensor taps and better ventilation and odour control.

The same features are now also being introduced to other public toilets.