Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1958-1959 — Page 26

58. In the first multi-storey buildings at Shek Kip Mei the ground floors were all used for domestic accommodation only, because of the large number of fire victims requiring resettlement at that time. In 1955 the experiment was tried of allocating whole ground floor bays of 240 square feet to squatter shopkeepers in order to enable them to carry on their former business. A year later a number of small workshops that were moved from squatter areas were re-established in these rooms; and in October 1956, the Urban Council agreed to modify its licensing requirements to permit former squatters to operate restaurants, cafes, fresh meat and fish shops and roast meat shops in ground floor rooms, Other ground floor rooms are used as offices or for welfare work and at Li Cheng Uk and Tai Hang Tung Estates ground floor bays have been converted into Government clinics.

59. New estate blocks now under construction are to have bays of twice the present width, that is they will measure 20 by 25 feet between the bearing walls. This modification in design has been introduced primarily to provide ground floor rooms that will be suitable for school class rooms and thereby increase the educational facilities that can be provided in the estates. In addition the new bays will allow increased flexibility in the allocation and use of ground floor rooms for the larger shops and for welfare purposes. In the upper floors the bays will be partitioned to provide domestic rooms of the same dimensions as at present.

60. The multi-storey estates are administered by a staff of Area Officers, generally under an officer-in-charge who has the title of Assist- ant Resettlement Officer. He in turn is responsible to the Resettlement Officer in charge of all the multi-storey estates who is a Cadet Officer. Each Area Officer is normally responsible for one or two multi-storey blocks, with a population of about 3,000 to 4,000 persons. One of his most important duties is the supervision of the work of the sanitary squads responsible for the cleanliness of all the public spaces inside the buildings passageways, staircases, latrines, washing spaces and bath- rooms--and also of the courtyards. As there are only three sanitation labourers for each block it is clear that if the public spaces and court- yards are to be kept clean the new settlers must quickly learn to discard any slovenly or insanitary habits which they acquired in the squatter areas. From 1st November, 1957, the Resettlement Department took over from the Urban Services Department the responsibility for all scavenging work within the boundaries of the estates. This meant that, in addition to dealing with the public spaces and courtyards within the

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