242
Page 38 of 242
56
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
course a revised paper for the Joint Resettlement Policy and Resettlement Management Select Committees for further consideration and, if necessary, for a final review by the Standing Committee of the Whole Council. Until all these complications have been resolved, I regret to say I am not in a position to give categorical answers to the specific points asked.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, the Commissioner calls upon us to do a great deal of memory work. We are supposed to remember all the reports of the Housing Board by heart so that we can tell exactly what it means when he talks about paragraph this and paragraph that. And he talks very vaguely about what the Committee did at this meeting and that meeting, but he doesn't say what they said or did. But the point I asked remains unanswered. Can I make it more specific? Have we or have we not decided that overcrowded tenants in Shek Kip Mei will go in Pak Tin; overcrowded families in Wong Tai Sin will go to Tsz Wan Shan and, if we have decided that, what is holding us up?
COMMISSIONER for ResettleMENT:-Certain proposals were made to the Committee sometime ago and when the whole scheme for the conversion of Shek Kip Mei was put to the Committee on 1st October, 1970, the position changed as a result of deliberations.
MRS. ELLIOTT:—Mr. Chairman, what connection has that got with Tsz Wan Shan and Wong Tai Sin?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-In order to solve the Tsz Wan Shan and Wong Tai Sin position a paper was put last week, on the 28th April to be exact, and the proposal was not accepted. I was directed to revise the proposals.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, we are in the dark, what proposals is the Commissioner for Resettlement talking about?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: -Mr. Chairman, I gather Standing Orders prevent me from disclosing what was said in the Committees.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Am I correct in saying that it had a connection with Peking Road because, if it had, it doesn't change the situation at all?
CHAIRMAN: This is quite a different matter, Mrs. ELLIOTT. I must rule it out of order.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-It is not. It is the same matter, Mr. Chairman.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
57
MR. A. de O. SALES:—Mr. Chairman, I refer to the second para- graph of the Commissioner's reply. He said that the recommenda- tions have all been endorsed by this Council, and subsequently the Commissioner draws attention to what he describes as a great experi- Is the Commissioner referring to the proposals for Shek Kip Mei to be improved by dividing older accommodation?
ment.
COMMISSIONER for ResettleMENT:-Again I am precluded from disclosing the contents of the discussion of the committee. However, I would be quite pleased to let members know. I refer to Committee Minutes RP/54/70 dated 1st October, 1970 so far as Shek Kip Mei scheme is concerned. As to the previous documentation which I cited,
may I also refer members to minutes of the Standing Committee as a whole, CW/5/67 of 11th July, 1967, CW/9/67 of 16th January, 1968, CW/9/68 of 10th December, 1968, CW/8/69 of 10th March, 1970 and CW/1/71 of 13th April, 1971.
MR. B. A. BERNACCHI:-May I correct the Commissioner for Resettlement. He is not precluded by Standing Orders in disclosing anything that is decided in Select Committee, only papers under dis- cussion.
MR. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, is the Commissioner aware that far from endorsing that particular recommendation, Council in Standing Committee as a Whole expressed very strong misgivings about this proposal. In point of fact, we thought that this was not progressive and it did not change the environment at all. We therefore asked Government to give this matter further consideration! Is the Com- missioner aware of that?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-I was sick at the last meeting, Sir. I think the Secretary will confirm that from the minutes which I quoted, CW/1/71.
MR. SALES: -Will you, Sir, bring all those matters to the attention of the Commissioner for Resettlement because that is crystalization of the latest thinking on the subject by the Urban Council?
CHAIRMAN:-Certainly.
(2) MRS. E. ELLIOTT asked the following question : -
In a hawker clearance operation in April 1970, hawkers from San Po Kong waited 10 months before they were allocated bazaar sites. Eight hawkers claim they were omitted. Since 5th March, 1971 the ward has sent seven letters in an attempt to have the matter investigated, but there has been no response from the Urban Services