Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1965-1966 — Page 31

Territories. The new blocks differ fundamentally from the older design in that access to the rooms is from a central corridor on each floor. For the first time, each room has its private balcony. Other improve- ments include, in the Mark III, the allocation of private lavatories shared between two or three families in lieu of the previous communal latrines and bathrooms and, in the Mark IV, a private lavatory on the balcony of each room. Power and light points are now installed in domestic rooms, previously a matter for the tenants to settle individually with a contractor. These innovations mean a considerable increase in comfort and living standards for new tenants. Thirteen Mark IV blocks, which because of their height have lifts to the higher floors, were built during the year. A plan of a typical Mark IV block is at Appendix VII.

66. Some of the estates include mixed Mark III and Mark IV type accommodation. The Mark III block has been discontinued in favour of the Mark IV which in its turn is being superseded by the Mark V block. In the latter, the room sizes match more closely the proportions of different family sizes which, experience shows, are found among persons being resettled. As in the old blocks, ground floor rooms can be used for shops and workshops, the only difference being that the new 'large' shops measuring 160 square feet will be smaller than the full-bay shops of 240 square feet previously available in the older estates, though the smaller shop units will be slightly larger than before (129 square feet instead of 120). These shops can be let in combination to provide larger premises. As with domestic rooms on the upper floors, shops can also be entered from the central corridor. Another departure is the provision of larger and specially designed premises for restaurants in Mark III blocks. This enables their operators to conform more closely with the requirements of the licensing authority which is averse to the one and two-bay restaurants that form the bulk of such businesses in the older estates. In Mark IV blocks, the ground floor is unsuitable for restaurants for structural reasons and because it is uneconomic to provide flues to a tall building of sixteen-storeys. Instead, planning is in hand to provide single-storey free standing buildings. The internal seating area of one such restaurant will be about 710 square feet, excluding kitchen, store, lavatory, etc. and the first of its kind will be in Ham Tin Estate.

67. The internal area of restaurants in the Mark I and II blocks varies considerably; the majority of them range from 240 sq. ft. to 480 sq. ft. With the reservation of 1/3 of this floor area for kitchen, scullery and food preparation, the seating area is appreciably reduced

25