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The Director of Buildings, Mr Leung Chin-man, today (March 14) pledged to step up clearance of external wall unauthorized building works and unauthorized rooftop structures, and upgrade the fire safety standards of old private composite buildings in the next three years.

Speaking at a press conference, Mr Leung said that as announced by the Financial Secretary in his Budget Speech, the Government would provide additional resources for the Buildings Department to deal with sub-standard buildings or unauthorized structures posing a threat to life and property.

"The Government will provide in phases over the next two years, 47 additional staff to the Buildings Department to step up fire inspection and enforcement in private buildings, particularly old composite buildings; and $90 million over the next three years to launch a large-scale operation to clear unauthorized building works on the external walls of buildings and unauthorized rooftop structures.

"The provision underlines the Government's determination and commitment to provide the community with a safe living environment," Mr Leung added.

The Director pointed out that the Buildings Department launched the largest ever operation known as "Blitz UBW Clearance" last year, aiming to clear about 14 000 unauthorized building works on the external walls of 300 target buildings located in districts with busy pedestrian flows. In the same year, the department also cleared unauthorized structures on the rooftop of 100 single-staircase buildings.

"We carried out the 'Blitz' operation without any additional resources, and we had mobilized all the manpower available for this purpose. With the proposed additional resources, we will be able not only to launch a similar operation, but also to increase its scale. Our goal is to cover 400 buildings in 2000, 500 in 2001 and 600 in 2002.

Mr Leung also pledged to set a higher target for the clearance of rooftop structures during the same period.

"We aim to clear up the unauthorized structures covering all of the 1200 single staircase buildings - 300 buildings in 2000, 400 in 2001 and 500 in 2002," he said.

The Director pointed out that additional manpower would be required for carrying out the intensified clearance operations.

"While existing manpower would be mobilized, we plan to recruit additional temporary staff in the next three years with the additional $90 million. Our aim is to form a special action squad whose duty will be exclusively dedicated to carrying out the 'Blitz' operations and clearance of rooftop structures," he noted.

Mr Leung said co-operation by building owners was essential to the success of clearance of unauthorized building works. They could assist by either voluntarily demolishing their unauthorized building works or complying with demolition orders.

"But we're determined to take out prosecution against those building owners who fail to comply with demolition orders. We want to intensify prosecution action against such building owners. In this connection, we are prepared to increase the number of prosecutions would by more than ten times from 200 in 1999 to 2 200 in 2000" he added.

Mr Leung went on to say that improving fire safety in private buildings was another priority job for his department.

He pointed out that the major fires that broke out in recent years had brought to light the inadequacy of fire safety provisions in certain commercial premises and commercial buildings completed before 1973.

Subsequently, the Buildings Department had commenced an improvement programme to upgrade the fire safety standards of these buildings.

Turning to other private buildings, Mr Leung said the fire safety condition of old composite buildings was also unsatisfactory.

"We will also, therefore, have to deal with composite buildings," Mr Leung stressed.

Mr Leung said the 47 additional staff would be deployed for improving the fire safety of composite buildings.

"We will step up inspections of these buildings, and provide advice to owners on improving the fire safety conditions of such buildings. We plan to implement a 10-year programme to deal with about 9000 buildings in this category." Mr Leung added.

"The Buildings Department will continue coordinating with the Fire Services Department and the Home Affairs Department in promoting fire safety and public awareness of this issue," Mr Leung said.

End/Tuesday, March 14, 2000

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