•
72
Wednesday, March 29, 1972
He said it was not easy to be sure that if a building was allowed
it would never be in the way of anything and therefore, it was tempting to allow a "temporary" building and villagers had found that it was easier to
just as get Government to approve temporary buildings than permanent ones -- Government found it easier to get supernumerary staff than permanent staff
to deal with new work.
"I came to the conclusion that while approval of temporary structures
might satisfy some deep felt bureaucratic need to avoid taking a decision, it did not give the same satisfaction to villagers' equally deeply felt need for
a home to call his own.
"I have therefore been working since last summer on a package of
measures designed to allow small buildings to be as permanent as land title
can make them in places where they are allowed at all, to simplify the procedures and remove unnecessary restrictions on the construction of the buildings themselves but to require rigid compliance with the few essential
requirements, mainly of a health and safety nature," Mr. Bray said.
On the matter of resumptions, he believed the answers might be found
in a more general use of deferred exchanges outside layout areas or very much
greater cash payments than the market normally makes.
"Exchange entitlements for land surrendered in a layout area are
well liked by New Territories land owners though few townsmen have ever heard
of a Letter B", he said.
1
The Kuk had suggested the same principles be used for land surrendered
outside a layout area and these proposals were being examined sympathetically.
/On re-entry,