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Municipality. This type of detailed planning can proceed concurrently with the major lines, provided certain general principles of density and zoning are agreed upon. With a large population of children who are not able to find school accommodation it is urgent to get the sites for future schools settled in relation to redistribution of the population.
96. Water supply, as has been mentioned, may be a determining factor in the size of the population. With improved housing conditions the consumption per head of the existing population will increase and there is the future population to be allowed for.
97. The position is really serious and it is extremely desirable that at an early stage the areas for Catchment are marked out, so that there may be no danger of interference. The Tai Lam Chung Valley scheme appears to be the most practical one for a large increase, but the relation of speed of construction to the demands of increasing population, is so close that it may be necessary to delay the installation of flushed W.Cs. until possibly the year 1957.
98. A drainage scheme would be required simultaneously with the full water supply: it has been suggested that the sewage should be transported clean outside the urban area to the agricultural lands where it can be made full use of for production purposes.
PART III-REALISATION.
will 99. The matters discussed under the fourteen headings of Part II, give some idea of the general lines which should be followed in preparing a Development Plan for Hong Kong and certain specific suggestions which the Plan might adopt, worked out into more precise form.
100. All these positive suggestions were discussed with Mr. S. O. Hill, What has been the Town Planning Officer and sketches were left with him. done in the writing of this Report, has been to go over the ground again, in the light of mature reflection and to come to decisions on many points which were left open while on the visit to the Colony.
101. It is now time to prepare and work out a definitive Plan; and for this purpose the Town Planning Officer will require a considerable staff and a large office. As mentioned in Part I, there are several aspects of survey work on which more detailed information is required: these additional surveys would naturally be prepared by the same staff, with help from other departments. e.g. Medical Office and Welfare Office, Chairman of the Urban Council, P.W.D., and official bodies such as the Chamber of Commerce.
102. There will come a certain time in the preparation of this Develop- ment Plan when decisions will have to be taken upon major recommendations, especially those involving a financial outlay. Some decisions, indeed, may be made upon the basis of this Preliminary Report. Such a question as the Tunnel will affect central planning on both sides of the Harbour: the question of the evacuation of the Services from Queen's Road will affect the planning of the Central Area: the question of an ultimate housing density will affect the area in Kowloon required for rehousing the decentralised population. Finally and perhaps most important of all, a target figure of maximum population should be decided upon. For all these it will be necessary to produce the statistical and other data (in some cases to be supplemented) upon which the views expressed in this Report are based.
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103. It has been suggested that for specific features of the Plan, an international competition might be held (as is being held for one of the features of Stockholm to-day), This is certainly possible for a localised problem for which all the necessary data can be supplied.
104. It is recommended, therefore, that the Development Plan for Hong Kong when it is completed shall (unlike the Greater London Plan) be a document which has received the general approval of the Government, which can proceed to use it as a basis upon which to prepare its own works of realisation and also upon which permits would be granted to private enterprise to proceed. At the same time it must be repeated, as is stated in Part I, that the method of a sealed and signed legal document for a Statutory Scheme is not recommended (it has been dropped under the English Town and Country Planning Act 1947): the Plan will be an approved statement of policy and as such subject to revision or expansion from time to time. It will act as a guide to Government and private developer and decisions taken upon it will be enforceable statutorily.
105. The question naturally arises as to under whom this Planning Office will be working and whose approval (apart from the final one of the Government) it must seek. It will, of course, be a section of the P.W.D. and as such under the control of the D.P.W.: but as Town Planning touches so many aspects of community existence, it is tentatively suggested that a special committee under the chairmanship of the Colonial Secretary should be set up, containing representatives of all the Departments concerned. At the same time it is strongly advised that the object of the Committee will not be to give approval at frequent intervals to sections of the scheme, but to keep in direct touch with the Planning Officer for purpose of decisions, when required, and for general guidance, leaving the Plan to be submitted as a whole for final acceptance. Experience in England of a municipal council or committee of laymen calling for the plan in stages, or according to sectional sub-division, and passing resolutions based on temporary expediency, has not been happy. If a Municipal Council is set up for Hong Kong it should not be charged with the preparation of the Plan, though of course it would be free to express its opinion before final approval was given.
106. It is also worth considering whether a purely Advisory Committee might not be of great value. The eagerness to help, the value of considered suggestion and of deep experience (possibly in a limited field) were very marked: a judicious and tactful Planning Officer could gain much from consultation either with a Committee or with individual members: at the same time the Committee itself would be a valuable agent in supporting and explaining the Plan when prepared.
107. With regard to Planning powers: these will require very careful consideration. Mr. Owen's excellent draft was based upon the 1932 Act. It is recommended that it be re-read and re-drafted in the light of the 1947 Act. The different attitude towards the rigid Statutory Scheme of the former practice has been alluded to. The most sensational change in the 1947 Act, the acquisition (or assumption) by the State of development value in land will hardly apply to Hong Kong where all freehold is owned by the State, any increased value of undeveloped land automatically goes to the State and on leased developed land, the covenants of the leases presumably provide for any increased value, owing to change of use or But there are many other powers increase in capacity, going to the Crown. which should be subject to review or amendment under a comprehensive planning ordinance: for example, the basis of compensation for the
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