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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
(4) MR. P. S. Woo asked the following question :-
In view of the shortage of playgrounds in Hong Kong will the Urban Council investigate the possibility of making arrangements with schools for their playgrounds to be opened for use by the general public and/or youth organi- zations during the summer vacations?
MR. A. de O. SALES, CHAIRMAN OF THE RECREATION AND AMENITIES SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows:-
This question concerns the availability of school playgrounds
for public use.
Events in the past year have added significance to the urgent need to provide for more opportunities for outdoor play, especially in the densely populated urban areas which this Council has been advocating strongly for so many years. Although we are constructing recreation grounds at an impressive rate, the demand is so great that we can by no means claim to have met it to the extent that we would have liked, so I am indebted to my colleague, Mr. Woo Po-shing, for inviting attention to the continuing need to explore every possible avenue of help.
In 1965 the then Urban Amenities Select Committee examined the possibility of making school playgrounds available for use by the public in the evenings. The Director of Education agreed to experiment and Members may recall that the Java Road Government Primary School Playground was in fact opened to the public for 6 months in the summer of 1966. Unfortunately, due to shortage of staff, the Urban Services Department was not able to extend the experiment to more playgrounds. This limited experiment was not wholly satisfactory in that a certain amount of damage was caused to school property. Members of the Select Committee reluctantly agreed that the experiment had demonstrated difficulties which made any extension of the programme impracti- cable until closer control and supervision could be instituted.
Nevertheless, because of the manifest need for more play
opportunities, the Urban Services Department recently invited the Director of Education to reconsider the matter. This new approach, I am glad to say, has met with encouraging response. The Director of Education supports the view that maximum use should be made of school buildings and playgrounds for recreation. He is prepared to put
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them to public use as play centres if responsible agencies are willing to provide the necessary supervision. Members will be pleased to learn that 16 Government Schools will be used for organized play during the coming summer holidays under the supervision of various public organiza- tions. I am assured that additional school playgrounds will be made available if responsible organizations ask for their use. I trust that reports of this public statement will encourage a wide response and will lead to a happy and healthy summer for many more thousands of our young- sters. Of course, private schools as well as others receiving Government aid or subvention will also be approached to open their grounds and other play facili- ties for such organized play activities, if these schools have suitable amenities.
MR. Woo:-Thank you Mr. SALES.
(5) MRS. E. ELLIOTT asked the following question:
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(a) How many rooms were vacant as at the end of May in each of the old resettlement estates, especially Mark I and II Blocks?
(b) What is the average time rooms remain empty after the
tenants remove from such blocks?
(c) In which estates is the decantation density 12 square feet
or more, and in which is it 16 or more?
(d) When is the situation on the more densely populated
estates likely to improve?
THE COMMISSIONER for RESETTLEMENT replied as follows:
I regret that the figures for the end of May are not yet avail-
able.
At the end of April there were 2,700 empty rooms in the eleven Marks I and II urban estates. Over 2,000 of these vacan- cies were in the four central Kowloon estates, Wang Tau Hom, Wong Tai Sin, Tung Tau and Lo Fu Ngam. There were only 154 empty rooms in the three oldest and most overcrowded estates, that is, Shek Kip Mei, Lei Cheng Uk and Tai Hang Tung.
Before empty rooms are re-allocated the tenants must be inter- viewed and the occupancy position checked; and a certain amount of routine documentation must be gone through. In some cases families take time in deciding whether to accept the rooms offered. In a few cases the offer is not