Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1955-1956 — Page 22

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with a ready response. There are still however a large number of workshops and factories in squatter areas which cannot be resettled even in ground floor rooms either because they are too large or because they use power-driven machinery or mechanical or chemical processes which would cause a nuisance in a domestic building.

34. As a first step in seeking a solution to the problem of resettling workshops and factories of these types the department made a detailed survey in the early autumn of 1955 of squatter workshops and factories in part of the Tai Kok Tsui area of Kowloon. It was found that 167 of the 592 businesses in the survey area could not be resettled in normal multi-storey resettlement buildings and also that these factories and work- shops were making a useful contribution to the Colony's economy and to its export trade. Most of them had formerly held Crown Lands permits which had been cancelled. The only alternative to resettlement would be to put these workshops and factories out of business as it was not possible for them to obtain other premises. A report based on this survey was given immediate consideration by Government, and in November, 1955 an inter- departmental Committee was appointed to formulate detailed proposals for a pilot scheme for one or more special multi-storey resettlement buildings to accommodate the squatter workshops and factories which will have to be cleared from the Tai Kok Tsui area.

The committee met under the chairmanship of the Commissioner for Resettlement, and was composed of representa- tives of the Architectural and Crown Lands Offices of the Public Works Department, the Labour Department and the Department of Commerce and Industry. In March 1956 it recommended the construction, as an experiment, of a five-storey H-shaped block having a total floor area of about 95,000 sq. ft. which could be rented to squatter workshops and factories of various types including those using power-driven machinery. If this experiment is a success the problem of clearing and resettling squatter factory areas will have been solved.

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