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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
The accommodation of persons in resettlement estates is governed by the provisions of the Resettlement Ordinance, Chapter 304. The letting of premises in these estates is governed by section 28 of the Ordinance which states that the tenancy must be subject to the conditions of a tenancy card in the prescribed form. Form 3 as included in the First Schedule of the Resettlement Regulations has been the relevant form so prescribed by the Governor in Council.
Unless Part IV of the Resettlement Ordinance is repealed, or very substantially amended, it would not be possible to introduce the Housing Authority type of tenancy agreement for persons compulsorily resettled under the Ordinance and accommodated in resettlement estates. However, I understand that in estates where the management has been vested in the Housing Authority, under the Housing Ordinance Cap. 283, such as Pak Tin, tenancy agreements can and will be used.
MR. BERNACCHI: -How is that? I would like to ask either Mr. Hu or the Commissioner how is it that Part IV of the Resettlement Ordinance being in force, merely because Pak Tin comes under the authority of the Housing Authority, Part IV of the Resettlement Ordinance is not to be enforced?
MR. HU:-This of course is a legal question. I am not competent to answer this question without advice obtained from Legal Department, but, looking at the Cap. 304 of the Resettlement Ordinance I gather that of course this answer was through the Legal Department. I do not know what the draft of this answer means but I understand that in the Pak Tin Estate some of the tenancy card would not be used because that Pak Tin estate will be under Housing Authority management. There will be no tenancy card. If I am right, I think the Commissioner for Resettlement could confirm or correct me.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-Mr. Chairman, all I can say is that when I receive a question, I seek legal advice and I instruct my staff to seek legal advice and the answer was drafted accordingly. I think our learned friend, Mr. BERNACCHI, Queen's Counsel, could probably give better answer than I could.
MR. SALES: Mr. Chairman, may we be spared a legal debate on this occasion?
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, is the answer that at the time the Housing Authority takes over Pak Tin will be designated as a Government Low-Cost Housing Estate?
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MR. BERNACCHI:---I think that is the only possible answer myself.
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: — Mr. Chairman, I think the intention was it should be known as Government Housing Estate, low-cost or otherwise.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Does the Commissioner appreciate that in Chinese exactly the same term is used both for Government low-cost housing and Government Housing Estate?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:
Chinese I thought the popular reference term to all Government housing estates has been Lim Ka Uk, low rent housing.
(21) MR. R. H. LOBO asked the following question :-
Can the Chairman inform me:
(a) If there has been any request by tenants of the resettlement estates for car parking facilities;
(b) If the Resettlement Department has any idea of the approximate number of cars now owned by the estate residents and if cars are causing space and other difficulties in any particular estate?
MR. HENRY H. L. HU, CHAIRMAN OF THE RESETTLEMENT MANAGEMENT SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows:
(a) As far as can be traced, the matter has been raised only once before, by a City District Officer on behalf of a Kaifong Association.
(b) The Resettlement Department has no record of the number of cars owned by estate tenants.
The planning ratio for car parking spaces in resettlement estates is at present one space to 50 flats, as compared with 1:25 in Low-cost Housing estates. In a recent survey carried out in an old estate (Lo Fu Ngam) and a new estate (Ngau Tau Kok), the actual count was one parked car for just under 50 flats in each of the two estates.
No special difficulties are being caused in any particular estate by the parking of private cars but as members are aware there is a problem in some estates with lorries and other commercial vehicles.
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