NEW TERRITORIES
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The policies and programmes of which I have been speaking apply no less to the New Territories than the rest of Hong Kong. I have explained when and where hospital and clinic services will be expanded; many of the secondary schools will be built in the New Territories; other social programmes apply equally there. But the pace of physical change is more dramatic there
than elsewhere, particularly in the new towns. But the Government has been open to the charge that outside the new towns it has done too little. I assure residents of the New Territories this will now change. In the course of this year and the next, new development will start at eight other places. At Tai Po, Fanling and Yuen Long there will be substantial expansion of the urban centres to provide housing,
land for industry, and community and recreational facilities. At other places such as
Silvermine Bay and Cheung Chau smaller housing estates will be built.
The pace of development and expansion of population is so fast that there is a serious danger of under-administration. The machinery of Government must be sufficiently strong and adequately staffed to respond quickly and adequately to local problems and aspirations. A pilot administration is being set up in Tsuen Wan, where the population is already more than half a million. A Town Manager has been appointed and a number of senior administrative posts created. The Town Manager combines the responsibilites of the former New Territories Administration District Officer with those of a City District Commissioner. He will have under him staff both to enable him to fulfil his essential part in the physical process of development, and also to run a district organisation similar to that in Hong Kong and Kowloon, so as to foster the growth of community organisations. These have a particularly important role to play in the New Towns, where so much of the population is new and contains so many people who are strangers to each other.
I referred last year to the need to involve the residents of the New Towns in the development and use of local facilities and amenities through a local committee, chaired by the District Officer and including both local residents and officials. In Tsuen Wan such a Committee has been established and started work. If successful, similar committees will be set up in the other towns when they reach a suitable stage in their development.