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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Com- missioner another question. Would it be possible for Area Officers or some other Resettlement Officers to make a check over, say, a month or over the next three months in those particular areas that we have mentioned and find out just how long one has to wait, and to make a report to the Management Select Committee and, if possible, also to the Advisory Committee on Public Transport?

COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:—I will certainly look into that possibility. For all I know the Advisory Committee on Public Trans- port may be carrying out such checks themselves and I think if that is so, it would be a mistake to duplicate them, but I will inquire into that and see what we can do.

MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Would it be in order for the points raised by Mrs. ELLIOTT to be passed on to those Urban Councillors who are sit- ting on the Public Transport Advisory Committee?

MR. WATSON:-In clarification of one point, Mr. Chairman, I think the Advisory Committee on Public Transport suggested that the Resettlement Department use Area Officers to do exactly what Mrs. ELLIOTT has asked for, but we were not given the extra staff for this.

MRS. E. ELLIOTT asked the following question:-

(a) In view of the constant complaints of breakdowns in the electricity supplies to the Resettlement Department's flatted factories, viz. San Po Kong, would it be true to say that the original installations were either inadequate, or the need was underestimated?

(b) As the livelihood of many families is in constant jeopardy because of these breakdowns, is the Department doing anything to assist the factory operators to expedite the additional installations required, and to ensure that long departmental negotiations will not cause additional hard- ships?

THE COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT replied as follows:-

Since the middle of March there have been two or three break- downs nearly every day at San Po Kong Factory No. 1. San Po Kong Nos. 2, 3 and 4 are not affected. These breakdowns have in many instances "blown" the fuses on the rising main installed by Government when the factory was built. When a fuse is blown, a whole floor or a section of the block is put out of action. I should here

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explain that, while the rising mains in Resettlement Flatted Factories are provided by Government, tenants are required to install their own connexions from the rising mains and the wiring within their factory units. As soon as the breakdowns began, the technical staff of the Resettlement Department carried out a survey of tenants' installations on the floors affected. The survey revealed a considerable number of defects which could, individual- ly or in combination, be the cause of the failures. The results of the survey were published on the factory notice board and communicated to the 20 tenants concerned on the 18th March. The latter have also been advised to put their installations in order. I understand that the power company has also served warning notices on some of the tenants and that this may result in their supply being disconnected if they fail to comply within a reason- able period. Tong tests carried out by my staff indicate that overloading on individual floors has not occurred and therefore the existing rising main should be sufficient for present needs, subject to technical considerations in- volving balancing of loads.

The answer to the first part of the question therefore is that the original Government installation appears to be ade- quate if the tenants' own installations are in order. The second part of the question does not arise, but the depart- ment is doing all it can to persuade tenants with defective installations to put them right as quickly as possible.

In amplification of what I have already said, I should add that the electrical installations in Resettlement Factories for which Government is responsible are designed to meet the anticipated needs of the squatter factories which have to be resettled. When, however, a factory block is designed it is not known which individual squatter factories will eventually be resettled in it. Nor is it possible to foresee the extent to which individual factory owners will wish to install additional or more powerful machinery. There have, in consequence, been instances in which the distribution of the electrical loading or the capacity of the rising mains have become inadequate after a resettlement factory block has been occupied. As a result, in some of the newer factories, including San Po Kong, additional electrical capacity has been allowed for from the outset. Government has also recently approved measures designed to ensure that these problems will not occur in factory blocks constructed in future, and I hope