Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1956-1957 — Page 23

Social Welfare Office's camp at North Point. The remaining 93 were taken across the harbour to the Li Cheng Uk Estate.

42. Three more clearances were completed on the Island, the first two being to clear the land required for a 1 mile extension to the Tin Hau Temple Road, above North Point, and at the same time to free a site for a Co-operative Housing Scheme. The third was at Blake Gardens for a much needed public playground in this thickly populated district. The total number of persons ferried across the harbour from these five clearance areas for resettlement in Kowloon amounted to 2,604.

43. As in previous years the majority of the clearances, however, were in the northern outskirts of Kowloon for only here can large numbers of sites for new buildings still be found between the existing built-up areas and the hills behind.

44. Several more clearances were made in what was once the second largest squatter area in the Colony-a 92 acre oblong of land sloping gradually up from the Castle Peak Road on the south to the Taipo Road on the north which originally contained the three small villages of Sheung Li Uk, Li Cheng Uk and So Uk. During the year ten more clearances were made in this area for land required by the Housing Authority's So Uk scheme, for an extension to the Li Cheng Uk Estate, for two new schools, for a Co-operative Housing scheme, for a small park and for public buildings. As a result of the clearances carried out in this area during the past 2 years its squatter population has been reduced from a concentrated 55,000 to a scattered 9,000 and 72 of the 92 acres have been freed. The remaining squatters will not be cleared until the sites they occupy are required for permanent development, in accordance with the accepted policy. Photographs illustrating the change which has taken place in this area between 1954 and 1957 will be found opposite this page.

45. Several other clearances were made for housing schemes apart from those already mentioned. One of these was the site for a new resettlement estate at Lo Fu Ngam which was cleared in four separate operations. During June a site in Fat Kwong Street, Hunghom was cleared for the Star Ferry Company's low-cost housing scheme for its employees and other

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