HOUSING, RESETTLEMENT AND TOWN PLANNING
were still under consideration but progress has been made in schemes for the selection of tenants pending the arrival of a Housing Manager whose professional advice is essential before the final details can be drawn up. Agreement on the financial arrangements has been reached in principle but some details are still to be settled.
One of the main difficulties involved in planning housing schemes in the Colony is the lack of suitable building sites, particularly in the urban areas. The maximum densities permitted in the United Kingdom and other European countries must be considerably exceeded if sufficient accommodation is to be provided with the limited land resources available. The Authority hopes to provide eventually for the construction of a minimum of 10,000 housing units a year and to meet this programme it has accepted the principle of multi- storey construction with net densities of 1,500 or more persons to the acre. But even on this basis it has been difficult to find land, and it was not until 24th August, 1954, that the first two sites at Java Road, North Point and Cadogan Street, West Point, were allocated. The planning of these estates was well advanced by the end of the year and a detailed scheme for the North Point estate was almost ready for submission to Government for approval. The plans for this site, which is about six and a half acres in extent, provide for 1,770 flats in 11 storey blocks, with a total potential population of about 15,000 persons. Provision has also been made for a school for 850 pupils, a community centre, clinics, a post office and 48 shops. The West Point site is precipitous and more difficult to develop but the plans provide for ingenious cross-contour construction and it
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