been seriously compromised. Factory operatives formerly living in the demolished factories were offered domestic resettlement in Shek Kip Mei Estate. By 31st March, 1958, sixty eight workshops and factories of various types had been resettled in the new factory building, occupying 286 units out of a total of 470 units of space available. Further clearances into this factory are continuing.
24. In the last quarter of the year preliminary clearances were made in connexion with two additional estates at Jordan Valley and Chai Wan which will be the seventh and eighth respectively. The Jordan Valley Estate is planned to provide accommodation for about 16,500 people in standard multi-storey blocks, and the Chai Wan Estate, which will be the first estate on Hong Kong Island, will provide accommodation for 22,000 persons. Each estate will also have a resettlement factory block.
25. The total area of land cleared for all development purposes during the year was 42.11 acres.
26. In November, 1954, over five thousand persons were rendered homeless as a result of three squatter fires which occurred in quick succession at Tai Po Road, near its junction with Castle Peak Road, and had to be accommodated in pavement huts on the streets of Sham Shui Po. By April, 1957, accommodation had been found for 1,224 of these in Tai Wo Ping Resettlement Area, and during the year under review a further 2,340 fire victims were resettled in 474 stone cottages built by the National Catholic Welfare Conference in this area. At the end of the year arrangements were in hand to clear the remaining 1,408 persons who were living in 260 pavement huts, into accommodation at Wong Tai Sin Estate during April and May 1958.
27. The programme of redevelopment at Shek Kip Mei continued to make good progress, and by the end of the year seven more multi- storey blocks had been completed, providing accommodation for 13,000 persons. A further twenty two of the two-storey emergency buildings had been demolished and their inhabitants, numbering nearly 10,000 persons, transferred to rooms in the new multi-storey blocks. This left only 11,200 persons remaining to be cleared from these 'Bowring Bungalows'.
28. In accordance with the Urban Council's policy a large number of ground floor rooms in the multi-storey estates has been allocated to former squatters for business purposes. Notable increases have been made in the number of premises licensed by the Urban Council either
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