TNAG-1156-FCO40-1436-Visits-by-FCO-Ministers-to-Hong-Kong-1982 — Page 44

CONFIDENTIAL

Notes on Points Mentioned during Lord Privy Seal's

Visit to Tuen Mun on 9 January, 82

The party was met by DOT and PMTM at the Castle Peak Hospital Helipad. On the way to Top Court Building in Area 10 (existing town centre) of Tuen Mun, Lord and Lady Frivy Seal were briefed on the concepts of 'balanced development' and 'development packages' for the New Town and shown sites for the 1 400-bed regional hospital (complete in 1986) and the recently completed Tang Shiu Kin Playground.

2.

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Inside the lift of Top Court Building the party was informed that Mutual Aid Committee, which has proved to be an effective organization for promoting the Deep Hong Kong Clean and Fight Crime Campaigns and a sense of neighbourliness among residents, had been formed for some 300 residents in the 80 flats of this particular 'vertical village' and that similar organizations had been, and were being, formed in other high rise buildings.

3.

At the northern portion of the rooftop of Top Court, the party was given a panoramic view of the northern part of the New Town, and briefed on the various studies currently being undertaken to further extend the Town westwards, southwards and northwards, in particular, the possibility of further development along the Yuca Long/Tuen Mun Corridor, in the context of the Northwestern New Territories Study, and Tuen Mun's geographical position in relation to Shek Kou, were mentioned. They were shown the resite houses at Area 36 built for the San Hui indigenous villagers involved in the impending village removal exercise and briefed on arrangements made for various categories of people affected by the clearance.

4.

The party then proceeded to the southern rooftop of Top Court to have a look at the southern part of the New Town. From there and with the help of a collection of air-photographs tracing the Town's development, they were 1-

(a) fully briefed on how the district had crown from

a rural and fishing community of 30 000 people in 1973, when the New Town Programme first started, to the present population of 140 000, increasing at the rate of 50 000 to 60 000 per year in the next couple of years, up to 350 000 in 1985 and reaching the present target of 0.5 million people by the late 80s;

(b) informed that the newly-arrived residents living

in public housing estates are mainly young couples from the urban areas aged below 35 and that the percentage of children below 9 is unusually high when compared with the normal demographic structure of the whole territory;

CONFIDENTIAL

/(c)