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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
In January of this year a survey of community facilities and services was carried out in every cottage area. As a result of this survey, I believe I can claim that the situation in the cottage areas is generally satisfactory. Complaints are, of course, received from time to time, but these are usually minor in nature, and concern maintenance rather than the scale of facilities.
In 1968 it was decided that water standpipes in Cottage Areas should normally be provided on the basis of one for every 500 persons. A more generous provision is made when the population is widely scattered, or the area is located on a steep hillside. There are 180 standpipes in the ten cottage areas, which gives an average of one standpipe for every 261 persons.
There is no official yardstick for the provision of toilet facilities, but a comparison may perhaps be drawn with Licensed Areas where the Urban Services Department recommends a scale of one toilet cubicle for every 50 persons. In the Cottage Areas the actual ratio is one cubicle for every 61 persons, and this scale seems to meet the residents' needs.
Again, there are no set rules for the provision of street lighting. Each area is considered on its merits and with the exception of Tai Hang Sai all have some public lighting; there are altogether 306 street lamps in these areas. Tai Hang Sai is fairly well lit by lights situated round its boundary, but even so, six street lights will be installed inside the area this year.
At this point I should perhaps point out that Cottage Areas, situated as most of them are close to built-up areas, were never designed to be totally self-contained communities, and thus may at first glance appear to be unreasonably short of general community facilities such as schools and nurseries. There are in fact three markets, ten playgrounds, ten primary schools, six kindergartens, one nursery, twelve community centres, three clinics and nine Kaifong Associations scattered through the areas, but these are of course supplemented by facilities in the adjoining urban areas.
Funds are available this year for several major improvements in Cottage Areas, including additional street lighting, standpipes and sitting-out areas, at a cost of over $70,000. In addition, a sum of $568,000 has been set aside for routine maintenance of existing facilities in Cottage Areas.
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Cottage Areas staff have a very close and friendly relationship with the majority of residents, and improvements proposed are in many cases the result of suggestions by the residents themselves, especially in the fields of water supply and lighting.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, is it not a fact that although these Cottage Areas were never designed to be totally self-contained communities, is it also not a fact that many of them are to-day virtually self-contained communities and even permanent communities?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:--Mr. Chairman, I would like to think that many of them would not in the long term be permanent communities, because I think it inevitable that some of the Cottage Areas at least will fall due for redevelopment in one way or another.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, the Commissioner said some of them, he did not say all of them. Now, could he say that in the medium term that all of them could eventually be resettled?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:--No, Mr. Chairman, I could not, there is no policy at all to give occupants of Cottage Areas any priority in the allocation of rooms in Resettlement Estates. On the future of these Cottage Areas, it is hard and I think it would be misleading to attempt to guess which one would be liable to be removed in the public interest and, indeed, how then would you relate these to which are part of the surrounding community and which stand on their own. I do not think it is possible to give any very helpful answers on that point.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, then could the Commissioner look at the future plans for all the 10 Cottage Areas and review to what extent the amenities could be improved for those which could quite likely be remaining for the next 5 to 10 years?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:-Personally, Mr. Chairman, this I think is a matter which the Resettlement Select Committee might well like to look at, if the Chairman agrees. We are constantly looking at these Cottage Areas nowadays. Indeed, we have a new Section set up for just that purpose to look critically at the facilities in these Cottage Areas with a view to recommending improvements.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN: As a start then, could the Commissioner review whether the scale of one toilet for every 61 persons could be brought up to the standard of the licensed areas of one per 50?
MR. BERNACCHI:-On a point of order, the original question was asked of the Commissioner for Resettlement, and I do not understand why anybody but the Commissioner for Resettlement had replied,
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