Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1962-1963 — Page 28

undertook the construction of a community centre in Epworth Village, Chai Wan, which is expected to be completed in mid-1963.

67. By the end of the year the fourteen cottage areas had 21 schools with places for 15,500 students, 2 boys' and girls' clubs, 12 welfare centres and 9 clinics. There were also 9 Kaifong Welfare Associations working under the guidance of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs.

68. In Multi-storey Estates the Resettlement Department has no sites to offer to voluntary agencies, and a different policy has evolved. The rooftops of these blocks are specially strengthened and provided with penthouses so that they can be used for boys' and girls' clubs or primary schools. A nominal fee of $1 is charged for the use of a roof- top and school fees are limited to $60 a year. At the end of the year there were 203 rooftops allocated for schools, 63 for boys' and girls' clubs, 13 for vocational training centres and 3 for recreation centres.

69. By arrangement with the Social Welfare and Education Depart- ment the ground floor rooms in selected blocks in new estates are now reserved for schools and welfare projects and are allocated by these departments to suitable voluntary agencies.

70. In the newer blocks, in which the supporting walls are at twenty feet intervals, it is possible to have bays of double the normal size, thus providing school classrooms of about 20 by 25 feet. At the end of the year there were 23 schools in operation on the ground floors of such blocks. These schools are operated by voluntary agencies as co-educa- tional vernacular primary schools under the Education Department's Subsidy Code.

71. Ground floor rooms are used as case-work centres, clinics, and for a great variety of other welfare purposes, including family planning clinics, Kaifong Association and sanitation company offices, recreation centres, milk distribution centres, children's libraries, nurseries, voca- tional training centres, noodle factories and Loan and Savings Associa- tion branch offices. Police posts, and sub-offices for the Urban Services Department's and Social Welfare Department's activities in the estates. are also provided at need.

72. Crown Land in the vicinity of the resettlement estates is also reserved for schools and welfare projects. There is a large Government polyclinic at Shek Kip Mei. Government schools are situated in or near most existing estates and are planned for all future ones. The Wong Tai Sin Community Centre which was built with funds provided by the

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