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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: --As I said two months ago, it has been submitted. Ever since then certain questions have been asked and certain questions have been answered, and I say again certain further questions have been asked. I made it quite clear at the last meeting it cost the taxpayer to the order of 40 to 50 million dollars and it is a lot. A question of costing, of justification must be looked at and considered. The Financial Secretary who is the trustee of the assets of the Community of four million has to have assistance to ask questions and it is our duty to answer certain questions.
MR. HU: Mr. Chairman, I was asking in future about the City Development Scheme. May I ask the Commissioner through you Mr. Chairman, would the cost around 40 to 50 million dollars deter the approval by the Government of this scheme or not?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: -It is not my function to query the wisdom of the Governor-in-Council, Sir.
MR. HU: -Can this question be answered by Mr. ROBSON?
MR. SALES: Mr. Chairman, Hon. Director of Public Works.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: -Mr. Chairman, as the Government is spending each year of the order of 100-200 million dollars on resettlement and low-cost housing, I personally don't think that 40 million dollars would deter it in making decisions.
MRS. ELLIOTT: -Mr. Chairman, is it not true that Pak Tin estate is already finished and money is being wasted in rents and tenants suffering through overcrowding in Shek Kip Mei in the meantime?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: -Mr. Chairman, according to the latest census figures, the overcrowding state in resettlement estates generally and in Shek Kip Mei in particular has not been as it was recorded.
MRS. ELLIOTT: -Mr. Chairman, may I clarify by quoting the Department's figure of 13,000 people living in overcrowded, less than 16 sq. ft. in Shek Kip Mei?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: -There could be a paper overcrowding, people stated on record and people who did not delete when they deleted the names.
MR. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, the Commissioner for Resettlement said in a reply to an earlier supplementary that it was not his function to question the wisdom of the Governor-in-Council. May I ask you, Sir, whether this Council was ever given the opportunity of just doing that, questioning the wisdom of the Governor-in-Council in such an important matter by discussing the proposal before it was presented?
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
CHAIRMAN: -Your question is out of order, Mr. SALES.
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MR. SALES: To what extent, Sir, because you tabled a paper concerning this very redevelopment scheme?
CHAIRMAN: Not this particular question which is quite irrelevant to the original question.
MR. SALES: Is it really, Sir, when it concerns the lives of so many thousands of people?
(14) MR. HENRY WONG asked the following question:-
Last month a serious fire took place at D'Aguilar Street Central where heavy damage was caused. Two blocks of pre-war wooden dwelling houses were badly burnt down and more than two hundred residents made homeless. The residents in this area complained that the fire could have been quickly controlled and the damage would not be so serious if it had not been for the stalls at the junction of Wellington Street and D'Aguilar Street which interfered with the efficiency of fire brigade.
(a) Would the Urban Services Department look into the situation of the stalls and would it be possible to remove such stalls in order to prevent a recurrence of fire in the future?
(b) Out of the two hundred residents made homeless how many of them have now been offered resettlement and where?
Mr. R. H. LOBO, CHAIRMAN OF THE HAWKER MANAGEMENT SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows:-
The Department has been concerned for some time about the hawker stalls in the southern section of D'Aguilar Street. There are 11 General Purpose Stalls and 10 Fixed Pitch Stalls in this section of the street all of which have been there for a considerable number of years. The street is narrow but is not open to traffic and until recently these stalls did not cause any undue obstruction. However, in the last few years there has been a considerable number of redevelopments of buildings on this street and each time an old building is demolished and replaced with a new one, the problem of temporarily resiting stalls arises.
The Department has already said in reply to a letter in the South China Morning Post that the stalls cannot be removed overnight. Stalls such as these can only be
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