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Excellency the Governor said: "The Centre is an instrument of our policy of integration of all who live or have come to live in Hong Kong.'
(b) The first Community Centre was opened at the Wong Tai Sin Resettlement Estate a year ago; the second at Tsuen Wan last month. Funds for two more, also to be on the scale of a Government 24 classroom primary school, have been donated by the United Kingdom Committee for World Refugee Year at the rate of about HK$14 millions each; the third, scheduled for completion in mid-1962, will be in the Kwun Tong Resettlement Estate, while a site for the fourth, to be built in 1963, has not yet been chosen. These are all to be managed by the Social Welfare Department and staffed by it in partnership with a number of voluntary agencies. It is not likely to be practicable to build and staff more than one new Centre every year.
During World Refugee Year the Hong Kong Council of Social Service collected over $800,000 in Hong Kong for a Community Centre and is at present planning to erect and run a Centre in the Chai Wan Resettlement Estate, where a site has been earmarked.
(c) The need for Community Centres in the older Resettlement Estates has been considered; but on the one hand satisfactory sites are much less easy to find in these areas, while on the other hand the need would seem somewhat less urgent than, for example, in Kwun Tong where the Estate is adjacent to a very new industrial area at some distance from urban amenities.
May I add that copies of a leaflet entitled 'Community Centres in Hong Kong' are available on the Secretary's table, if Members are interested to have further information."
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:- May I ask a supplementary question, Mr. Chairman? Can the Commissioner for Resettlement recall from memory how many resettlement estates he expects to complete during 1962 and 1963?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:- I am afraid that this has nothing to do with the provision of community centres.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:- Mr. Chairman, I ask the question as I would like to relate the number of estates which we expect to complete, with the number of community centres which we plan to complete during these two years.
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COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:- Mr. Chairman, I do not wish to answer that question.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:- May I just point out Mr. Chairman that if, for instance, the number of estates is much larger than the number of community centres we expect to complete, while it is the policy to use the community centre as an instrument of integration, it might not be a practical proposal if you are unable to build the same number of community centres.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN, I am
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: afraid that I don't fully understand the question.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:- If the Commissioner for Resettlement wishes, probably we could have this discussed more fully at the next meeting of the Resettlement Policy Select Committee.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:- Yes, I agree.
DR. A. M. S. BELL asked the following question:-
"In view of the fact that 3,800 children live at Tung Tau and that the area planned for a playground is at present being used for contractors' huts and is therefore unlikely to be available for another year, would the Chairman please consider making a temporary playground in the triangular concrete area available at the southern end of block H?"
THE CHAIRMAN replied as follows:
"It is correct that the permanent recreation ground which will be between Blocks D and E in this estate will not be available for another year. It is proposed instead that one or both of the two open spaces which have been recently surfaced on the west and south sides of Block H should be used as a temporary recreation ground, and should be handed over to the Urban Services Department for this purpose.
Each of the areas is between 9,000 and 10,000 sq. ft."
DR. BELL:- Mr. Chairman, when do you expect to be able to get these playgrounds functioning after they are handed over?
CHAIRMAN:- The two areas are in fact available immediately and the department is already considering how they may best be used. They will be brought into use very shortly.
DR. A. M. S. BELL asked the following question:—
"I notice that the temporary children's playground at the junction of Tai Po and Castle Peak Roads is popular but quite a large portion of the area is fenced off to
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