the end of the year, 160 such units had been recovered. Legal action for the recovery of the remaining 185 units involving 38 tenants is still in progress.
88. About 89 different types of manufacture are represented in resettlement factories, a microcosm of Hong Kong's light industries. The commonest trades are metalwork, plastics, woodwork, weaving and printing. There are in all 19,200 workers employed in these factories, many of them from the neighbouring domestic resettlement estates. Once established, factories are regularly inspected by officers of the Labour and Fire Services Departments, and also by the Commerce and Industry Department when Certificates of Origin and Commonwealth Preference Certificates are required for exporting.
89. The older factory buildings, which have five floors, are similar in appearance to a residential 'H' block, while the new ones with five or seven storeys are all to an 'I' pattern. In the 'H' blocks, each bay accommodates two 198 square feet units, and in the 'I' blocks the units are of 256 square feet lying three abreast in each bay. Access to each floor is by central staircase and ramp, with additional staircases at each end of the block. There are no lifts, as the intention is to reduce building cost as much as possible, consistent with functional efficiency. A balcony around each floor gives access to all units and there are communal latrines and bathrooms. The rooftops of some buildings are used for drying purposes. A plan of a three-unit bay, seven-storey factory block is at Appendix 14 and rents are described in Chapter 9.
90. The minimum area which may be allocated to any one concern is one unit of 198 or 256 square feet, and the maximum is approximately 5,000 square feet--twenty-five units in the old and twenty in the new factories. The latter figures reflects one of the limitations which operate when clearing factories and workshops into resettlement accommodation. This is because a squatter factory that exceeds 5,000 square feet of covered enclosed working space is not eligible for resettlement as it is considered that a business of that size should find its own alternative accommodation. The second limitation is that certain trades are excluded. Operators of these trades are not debarred from resettlement, but are required to change their trade to one approved by the department as suitable for a multi-storey building.
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