Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1967-1968 — Page 43

RESTAURANTS

94. The majority of restaurants in the Mark I and II blocks range from 240 to 480 square feet, although a few are substantially larger. The statutory health requirement that one-third of the floor area must be employed for kitchen, scullery and food preparation appreciably reduces the permissible seating arca and it was therefore to be expected that the owners tend to encroach onto the open space in front of and behind their premises, where storage, food preparation, cooking and the seating of customers create obstruction and dirt. During the previous year the Urban Council approved proposals which would permit, wherever space is reasonably available, the erection of permanent covered outside seating in front of restaurants in Mark I and II blocks. At the end of the year under review, plans for the structures, which the restaurant owners will build at their own expense, were ready and the necessary amendments to the Resettlement Ordinance and Regulations to permit the charging of rent for use of the land were completed. The standard size of the outside seating extension will probably be about 550 square feet.

95. The need for properly constructed flues makes different arrange- ments necessary in the newer estates. In the Mark III blocks, there are rather larger and specially designed premises for restaurants at the end of a number of blocks. This enables their operators to conform more closely with the requirements of the licensing authority which, while sympathetic with the practical difficulties, is nevertheless justifiably averse to the one and two-bay restaurants of the older estates. In the sixteen-storey Mark IV and V estates flues are not practicable and in any case the ground floor is unsuitable for restaurants because of the load-bearing walls. The answer has been to provide single-storey free- standing or annexe buildings. Five of these restaurants were completed and allocated in Ham Tin in January 1968 and two more are under construction in Shek Lei Estate in the New Territories. This new type of restaurant provides an internal scating area of 1,368 square feet plus kitchen, scullery and area for food preparation, etc. The first of these restaurants started business in March.

HAWKERS

96. No account of trading in the estates would be complete without a reference to the hawkers, who supply an extensive demand for a wide range of goods, from food of all kinds to clothing and simple kitchen

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