Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1964-1965 — Page 25

in the early days of resettlement. By the end of 1954 the Architectural Office of the Public Works Department had produced standard drawings which made it possible to prepare working drawings and specifications for a building contract at very short notice. An example of this is a seven-storey building containing 840 rooms which was one of the first to be constructed at the Li Cheng Uk Estate. Once the piling had been completed, this building was finished in about eight weeks. By the end of the first financial year in which permanent resettlement buildings were planned and constructed, seventeen of six or seven storeys, con- taining in all 8,508 rooms, were completed, and plans for building an additional twenty-five blocks containing 12,698 rooms were well advanced. This good start has not been an isolated phenomenon, and it is a tribute to the Colony's efficient building industry as well as to the Public Works Department that by 31st March, 1965, 354 multi- storey blocks had been constructed, comprising 140,485 rooms. The number of authorized persons livng in the estates at the end of March was 681,134, an increase of 136,979 during the year (see Appendices II and III). In addition, there were under 7,000 tolerated unauthorized persons, compared with about 31,000 a year previously. The decline in the unauthorized population is the result of a new policy approved in August on the addition of these people to tenancy cards. Under the previous policy they could only be added if sufficient room space was available, whereas the new policy permits the addition of certain cate- gories irrespective of room densities. A list of the 17 estates showing the population of each is at Appendix II, while Appendix III shows the growth in the authorized population of estates and cottage areas since 1954.

53. What kind of domestic accommodation is available in these buildings? Each wing of an 'H' block is divided structurally into a number of 10 foot bays, each with a depth of about 25 feet. These bays were then originally sub-divided by partitions on the centre line into rooms of about 120 square feet (9 ft. 6 ins. X 12 ft. 6 ins.) which is the standard size for rooms in Mark I and II blocks. Tenants are respon- sible for decorating the rooms themselves.

54. Because of the very large number of squatters to be resettled, Government decided in 1954 that each of these 120 square feet rooms would have to accommodate 5 adults (two children under 10 counting as 1 adult), i.e. at a density of 24 square feet per adult. Ventilation is provided by a door and a large window opening on to the access balcony and by openings in the partitions at the rear of each room.

20

Page 25Page 26