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I have no doubt that the Police would welcome specific reports of gang activity, and should any resident have information which may be helpful he should make a report to the Wong Tai Sin Police Station, or alternatively to the Police Reporting Centre at Block 6, Tung Tau Estate. In an emergency the best means of reporting is by way of the "999" system.
Members will be interested to know that at the request of the Police a list of vacant rooms in the estate is sent every month to the local Divisional Superintendent. This enables the Police to carry out periodic checks to prevent misuse of these rooms by youth gangs, drug addicts, etc.
Another measure taken which has the wholehearted support of the Police, is the clearance of a dense concentration of some 675 illegal structures from the central part of the estate. Two major operations were necessary for this, the first on 30th November, the second on 7th December. These two clearances should make the area easier to police, and less attractive to criminal elements.
(6) MISS CECILIA L. Y. YEUNG asked the following question (In Cantonese):
(a) With the new housing plan as announced by His Excellency the Governor recently, will the old Mark I and II Resettlement Estates be preserved or be eventually pulled down and re-built?
(b) If the intention is to preserve for at least several years to come, what steps are being taken to modernize the individual rooms such as the supply of water and water meters to individual rooms and even conversion, so as to provide private latrines?
MR. PETER C. K. CHAN, CHAIRMAN OF THE RESETTLEMENT SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (In Cantonese):-
The answer to the first part of the question is that it has not yet been decided whether the blocks in the old Mark I and II resettlement estates will be converted in situ or demolished.
The decision that has been taken by the Government is to proceed as quickly as possible with the redevelopment of all Mark I and II estates.
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However, I do not myself believe that the conversion of the blocks in these estates in the way envisaged by the designers as is being done for most blocks at Shek Kip Mei is likely to be repeated in other old estates. The reason is that to provide enough domestic floor space to give residents of these blocks at least 35 square feet per person and at the same time to create enough space on the ground floor to supply adequate communal amenities and services will mean that in most of these estates the present blocks will have to be demolished and a smaller number of higher blocks built in their place.
The details have yet to be worked out but I have asked for and been given an assurance by the Commissioner for Resettlement that once the redevelopment programme has been worked out in detail, the question of interim improvements to the old blocks in the estates that come rather late in the redevelopment programme will be carefully considered.
MISS YEUNG (In Cantonese): -I wish to ask "proceed as quickly as possible", how long would this take approximately?
MR. C. K. CHAN (In Cantonese):-We, of course, would hope that we can do this as quickly as we can. Sometimes it will be very quick, but we have no say on this. May be six months or one year or even longer, but we can not make any forecast. But I believe that once the Commissioner for Resettlement or the Members of this Council know anything about it, a report will be made.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN (In English):-Mr. Chairman, could I ask the Commissioner for Resettlement if this plan is possible in a ten-year re-development programme? Isn't it today the situation that it could eventually end up in being a fifteen-year re-development programme?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT (In English):-The position is the new ten-year housing programme takes into account the re-development of most, but not all the old Mark I and II estates. So, to the extent that some of them are excluded from the ten-year programme, it will take a little longer than ten years in which to re-develop them or convert them all.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN (In English):-In other words, it could quite likely extend to fifteen years for the balance of that portion of the programme which is not included in this new ten-year re-development housing programme?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT (In English):-Yes, it might be as long as that, but I hope that it isn't.
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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
I have no doubt that the Police would welcome specific reports of gang activity, and should any resident have information which may be helpful he should make a report to the Wong Tai Sin Police Station, or alternatively to the Police Reporting Centre at Block 6, Tung Tau Estate. In an emergency the best means of reporting is by way of the "999" system.
Members will be interested to know that at the request of the Police a list of vacant rooms in the estate is sent every month to the local Divisional Superintendent. This en- ables the Police to carry out periodic checks to prevent misuse of these rooms by youth gangs, drug addicts, etc.
Another measure taken which has the wholehearted support of the Police, is the clearance of a dense concentration of some 675 illegal structures from the central part of the estate. Two major operations were necessary for this, the first on 30th November, the second on 7th December. These two clearances should make the area easier to police, and less attractive to criminal elements.
(6) MISS CECILIA L. Y. YEUNG asked the following question (In Cantonese):
(a) With the new housing plan as announced by His Excellency the Governor recently, will the old Mark I and II Resettlement Estates be preserved or be eventually pulled down and re-built?
(b) If the intention is to preserve for at least several years to come, what steps are being taken to modernize the individual rooms such as the supply of water and water meters to individual rooms and even conversion, so as to provide private latrines?
MR. PETER C. K. CHAN, CHAIRMAN OF THE RESETTLEMENT SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (In Cantonese):-
The answer to the first part of the question is that it has not yet been decided whether the blocks in the old Mark I and II resettlement estates will be converted in situ or demolished.
The decision that has been taken by the Government is to proceed as quickly as possible with the redevelopment of all Mark I and II estates.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
305
However, I do not myself believe that the conversion of the blocks in these estates in the way envisaged by the designers as is being done for most blocks at Shek Kip Mei is likely to be repeated in other old estates. The reason is that to provide enough domestic floor space to give residents of these blocks at least 35 square feet per person and at the same time to create enough space on the ground floor to supply adequate communal amenities and services will mean that in most of these estates the present blocks will have to be demolished and a smaller number of higher blocks built in their place.
The details have yet to be worked out but I have asked for and been given an assurance by the Commissioner for Resettlement that once the redevelopment programme has been worked out in detail, the question of interim im- provements to the old blocks in the estates that come rather late in the redevelopment programme will be carefully considered.
MISS YEUNG (In Cantonese): -I wish to ask "proceed as quickly as possible", how long would this take approximately?
MR. C. K. CHAN (In Cantonese):-We, of course, would hope that we can do this as quickly as we can. Sometimes it will be very quick, but we have no say on this. May be six months or one year or even longer, but we can not make any forecast. But I believe that once the Commissioner for Resettlement or the Members of this Council know anything about it, a report will be made.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN (In English):-Mr. Chairman, could I ask the Commissioner for Resettlement if this plan is possible in a ten-year re-development programme? Isn't it today the situation that it could eventually end up in being a fifteen-year re-development programme?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT (In English):-The position is the new ten-year housing programme takes into account the re- development of most, but not all the old Mark I and II estates. So, to the extent that some of them are excluded from the ten-year pro- gramme, it will take a little longer than ten years in which to re-develop them or convert them all.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN (In English):-In other words, it could quite likely extend to fifteen years for the balance of that portion of the programme which is not included in this new ten-year re-development housing programme?
COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT (In English):—Yes, it might be as long as that, but I hope that it isn't.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.