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the Resettlement and the Urban Services Departments which are under its control, to implement that policy.
As to the revised Resettlement aims for 1972, the Joint Resettlement Select Committee in close consultation with the Commissioner for Resettlement has arrived at the aims as outlined in the covering paper.
These Aims have a vital bearing on improving the quality of life in the Resettlement Estates, and they therefore deserve some further explanation.
13(a) has to do with the plans for relief of overcrowding in the old Mark I and II estates, which at present house over 500,000 people.
Shek Kip Mei Resettlement Estate is the first of these Mark I and II estates which will be rebuilt with vastly improved housing standards.
A 10-year plan is now being considered by Government to re-build these old estates at a cost of over HK$600 million.
I hope that this "urban renewal" programme for the Mark I and II estates can be decided on and implemented by Government as soon as possible.
Meantime continuous steps are being taken to reduce overcrowding in these estates. Families living in overcrowded conditions at densities of 17 sq. ft. and under per person, will be given priority. Later on, it is hoped to relax the qualifying density limit.
13(b) has to do with improvements in existing estates.
In many of the estates there is an urgent need to improve community services by providing more nurseries, youth centres, open play spaces, libraries, vocational trade centres, etc.
Three CDO Sub-Offices have already been established in Tsz Wan Shan, Sau Mau Ping and Chai Wan Resettlement Estates. I hope that these CDO Sub-Offices will generate more participation by estate residents in improving the quality of life within their estates. If these CDO Sub-Offices prove their worth, perhaps more CDO Sub-Offices can open up in other estates.
Resettlement Department staff is making a determined effort to reorder hawker stalls in the estates with a view to improving sanitation and general public health. A long-term programme to build modular markets has been agreed upon.
The reordering of the 12,000 hawker stalls in the estates is vital to the health and well-being of resettlement residents. The Urban Council through the Resettlement Department must ensure that this reordering programme is carried out without delay.
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13(c) has to do with the provision of adequate commercial and community services for residents in new and future estates.
Over the years there has been a steady improvement in the quality and construction of resettlement estates. However, it is becoming evident that more sophisticated planning is required for future Government housing estates, irrespective of whether they will be called Resettlement Estates or Government Low-Cost Housing Estates, or any other name.
In many parts of the world, the population of the average resettlement estate would make it a town by itself.
Due to rising living standards, the people who will move into our new low-cost housing estates will, I am sure, demand better housing standards and more comprehensive community services. For this, they are able to and will be prepared to pay a reasonably higher rent.
13(d), (e) and (f) have to do with reviewing estate management policies and ensuring that such policies are realistic enough to be implemented by Resettlement Department staff for the good of all estate residents.
This will depend upon a good flow of communication between the Resettlement Committees and the Resettlement Department through the Commissioner for Resettlement.
It will also depend upon Government reviewing the poor conditions of service of Resettlement Department staff and taking a decision in the right direction as soon as possible.
Mr. Chairman, the Joint Resettlement Committees, with the full support of the Commissioner for Resettlement and his staff, are determined to do everything we can to improve the living environment in the Government housing estates under the management of this Council. It is our hope and aim that residents will enjoy a better quality of life and a sense of identity and responsibility to the estates in which they live.
Local Government Reform
The Government's White Paper on the Urban Council is now out at last.
The Elected Members do not consider it any great privilege by Government to allow the Urban Council to ask for an increase in rates subject to the consent of Legislative Council, and presumably the unofficial approval of Colonial Secretariat.