HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Members are supporting this resolution, which I presume includes the Director of Public Works, I would like him to tell us to what extent this acceleration of the rate of construction of resettlement buildings, which as I have already said has been agreed upon by Government some time ago, is likely to affect other Public Works Department commitments particularly in respect to commitments approved in this year's Estimates on behalf of this Council. I would myself strongly urge the Director of Public Works to give careful consideration to a much more widespread contracting out of public works to firms of civil engineers and architects in private practice. The only other alternative that I can see is for consideration to be given to lowering the qualifications for technical and in particular expatriate officers in the Department so as to enable the much needed increase in Government staff to be obtained. I would not like the Director of Public Works to think for one minute that I am encroaching on a ground which is entirely within his own province, but even a casual glance at this year's Estimates will show the enormous backlog that there is in both major and minor public works waiting to be carried out, and in supporting proposals which in fact place a very serious added burden on the Director of Public Works we must have due regard to the requirements of the community as a whole and not merely those of just the resettlement programme. The same situation arises in respect to land. The Housing Authority is very short of land that can be immediately developed and every extra estate that is given to resettlement is one possible estate less to low-cost housing, at least until such time as low-cost housing and resettlement can be merged in one scheme. I therefore strongly urge Government to take active steps, not only in the development of land through the proposed development division that does not yet exist, but also in the recovery of vacant land that could be better used for development purposes. I have in mind in particular the large expanse of military land near the Chai Wan Resettlement Area which I feel is of little or no value to the Military Authorities but which we could certainly put to the greatest of use in the matter of housing. There is the more contentious military land in the heart of the City, part of which at least the Military Authority might well feel could be exchanged for a large site elsewhere and finally, there is the work that the Commissioner of Housing is just commencing in the matter of a general survey for the purposes of slum clearance proposals. In other words, we must be very careful to
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avoid so spotlighting a particular problem that others of equal importance suffer in the result and we the Reform Club Elected Members are sufficiently perturbed that this is likely to happen in respect to resettlement as to hope for some definite assurances from the responsible officers of Government either at this or a subsequent meeting. I am therefore indebted to Mr. Hilton Cheong-Leen in that his Motion has enabled me to express in public views which I was only able to express in private and then less fully at the time when the substance of the present Motion was in my view put forward by the Resettlement Policy Select Committee some months ago and thereafter accepted by Government. I hope the Chair will not rule me out of order if I close by expressing my pleasure at being able once again to address this Council upon a Motion, indeed surfeit of Motions, because in a few minutes' time I am going to be seconding Dr. Bell's Motion, and may I close by reiterating what I regard as the twofold duty of an elected member particularly when in a permanent minority of the total number of Councillors, namely, to criticise measures fearlessly but constructively where criticism is called for, and at the same time to perform our numerous executive duties in the day-to-day business of the Council particularly on its Select Committees efficiently and expeditiously. Our Platform was laid on the table by Mr. Philip Au at the annual conventional debate during my temporary absence from the Council and includes measures for the early completion of Resettlement. It is a Platform that I commend to the Members of this Council, and I appreciate the wonderful personal vote of confidence that the electors gave me in returning me here a few weeks ago.
MR. A. ST. G. WALTON : - Mr. Chairman, I welcome Mr. Cheong-Leen's motion chiefly because it gives me an opportunity of paying a tribute to the remarkable achievement of the Public Works Department in constructing multi-storey accommodation for 120,000 persons in the three years since multi-storey resettlement started.
Resettlement accommodation for 40,000 persons a year means the construction of about 20 large 'H' blocks with at least 8,000 domestic rooms each of 120 square feet, i.e., a total of nearly 1 million square feet of floor space, excluding the space required for latrines, washing spaces, bath rooms, staircases and passages. In other words, the Public Works Department has already achieved
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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Members are supporting this resolution, which I presume includes, the Director of Public Works, I would like him to tell us to what extent this acceleration of the rate of construction of resettle- ment buildings, which as I have already said has been agreed upon by Government sometime ago, is likely to affect other Public Works Department commitments particularly in respect to com- mitments approved in this year's Estimates on behalf of this Council. I would myself strongly urge the Director of Public Works to give careful consideration to a much more widespread contracting out of public works to firms of civil engineers and architects in private practice. The only other alternative that I can see is for consideration to be given to lowering the qualifica- tions for technical and in particular expatriate officers in the Department so as to enable the much needed increase in Govern- ment staff to the obtained. I would not like the Director of Public Works to think for one minute that I am encroaching on a ground which is entirely within his own province, but even a casual glance at this year's Estimates will show the enormous backlog that there is in both major and minor public works waiting to be carried out, and in supporting proposals which in fact place a very serious added burden on the Director of Public Works we must have due regard to the requirements of the community as a whole and not merely those of just the resettlement pro- gramme. The same situation arises in respect to land. The Housing Authority is very short of land that can be immediately developed and every extra estate that is given to resettlement is one possible estate less to low-cost housing, at least until such time as low-cost housing and resettlement can be merged in one scheme. I therefore strongly urge Government to take active steps, not only in the development of land through the proposed development division that does not yet exist, but also in the recovery of vacant land that could be better used for development purposes. I have in mind in particular the large expanse of military land near the Chai Wan Resettlement Area which I feel is of little or no value to the Military Authorities but which we could certainly put to the greatest of use in the matter of housing. There is the more contentious military land in the heart of the City, part of which at least the Military Authority might well feel could be exchanged for a large site elsewhere and finally, there is the work that the Commissioner of Housing is just commencing in the matter of a general survey for the purposes of slum clearance proposals. In other words we must be very careful to
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avoid so spot-lighting a particular problem that others of equal importance suffer in the result and we the Reform Club Elected Members are sufficiently perturbed that this is likely to happen in respect to resettlement as to hope for some definite assurances from the responsible officers of Government either at this or a subsequent meeting. I am therefore indebted to Mr. Hilton Cheong-Leen in that his Motion has enabled me to express in public views which I was only able to express in private and then less fully at the time when the substance of the present Motion was in my view put forward by the Resettlement Policy Select Committee some months ago and thereafter accepted by Government. I hope the Chair will not rule me out of order if I close by expressing my pleasure at being able once again to address this Council upon a Motion, indeed surfeit of Motions, because in a few minutes time I am going to be seconding Dr. Bell's Motion, and may I close by reiterating what I regard as the twofold duty of an elected member particularly when in a permanent minority of the total number of Councillors, namely, to criticise measures fearlessly but constructively where criticism is called for, and at the same time to perform our numerous executive duties in the day to day business of the Council particu- larly on its Select Committees efficiently and expeditiously. Our Platform was laid on the table by Mr. Philip Au at the annual conventional debate during my temporary absence from the Council and includes measures for the early completion of Re- settlement. It is a Platform that I commend to the Members of this Council, and I appreciate the wonderful personal vote of confidence that the electors gave me in returning me here a few weeks ago.
MR. A. ST. G. WALTON :-Mr. Chairman, I welcome Mr. Cheong-Leen's motion chiefly because it gives me an opportunity of paying a tribute to the remarkable achievement of the Public Works Department in constructing multi-storey accommodation for 120,000 persons in the three years since multi-storey resettle- ment started.
Resettlement accommodation for 40,000 persons a year means the construction of about 20 large 'H' blocks with at least 8,000 domestic rooms each of 120 square feet, i.e. a total of nearly 1 million square feet of floor space, excluding the space required for latrines, washing spaces, bath rooms, staircases and passages. In other words the Public Works Department has already achieved
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