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Following is a question by the Hon Leung Yiu-chung and a reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (June 2):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the current number and distribution of private columbarium facilities according to the information that various government departments have;
(b) of the number of complaints about private columbarium facilities received by the authorities last year, details of the complaints, and how such complaints were followed up by the authorities; and
(c) given that the Government indicated in its reply to the question of a Member of this Council early this year that it was considering the formulation of appropriate measures to promote information transparency in the trade of private columbarium facilities and to strengthen consumer protection, of the progress of such work, and whether it has any plan to regularise existing private columbarium facilities; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
Currently, there are eight public columbaria managed by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) providing about 167,900 public niches. Apart from some 300 re-used public niches which would be available each year for allotment to applicants on the waiting list, the rest has all been taken up. In July 2009, the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council approved funding for construction of a new public columbarium within the Wo Hop Shek Cemetery, providing some 41,000 new niches for use in 2012. Apart from public columbaria, a total of about 208,700 niches are provided and managed by the non-governmental Board of Management of the Chinese Permanent Cemeteries (BMCPC), all of which have been allotted, with only a few available for re-use. BMCPC anticipated that about 50,000 newly-built niches will be provided in the coming two years. Other cemeteries managed by the Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist and other religious bodies provide about 119,300 niches in total, of which some 35,400 are not yet allotted. It is projected that about 8,000 newly-built niches will be available in the coming two years. In addition, there is market demand for private columbaria which is an alternative source of supply, and which provide consumers with choice. Some patrons prefer private columbaria mainly because of their personalised services, for instance, pre-death purchase, daily worship services and Feng Shui, etc.
The operation of all trades in Hong Kong must be in compliance with the relevant statutory requirements. Although the provision of private columbaria for storage of cremains does not give rise to public health and environmental hygiene concerns, they still need to comply with the relevant requirements on planning, construction design, building standards and fire safety, as well as conditions of the land leases. The relevant government departments will handle the problems, enquiries and complaints relating to private columbaria in accordance with legislation and administrative measures under their purview. My reply to the three parts of the question is as follows:
(a) Regarding private columbaria, the existing information available to government departments is mainly derived from the past applications for planning permission or complaint cases. The current number and distribution of private columbarium facilities according to statistics on planning permission and complaints about private columbaria received in the past three years are at Annex.
(b) In 2009, 29 and 143 complaints about private columbaria were received by the Planning Department and Lands Department (LandsD) respectively. Besides, the FEHD also received 31 complaints related to suspected private columbaria. The complaints were mainly about incompatibility of the columbaria with the community, breach of lease conditions, occupation of private or government lands, environmental hygiene nuisances and impacts on local traffic. Various departments have handled such problems, enquiries and complaints in accordance with their respective mandate and relevant legislation, or referred the cases to other responsible departments for follow-up.
As advised by the Development Bureau, on the planning aspect, under the existing Town Planning Ordinance, the Planning Authority may take enforcement and regulatory actions against confirmed unauthorised developments in areas covered by the Development Permission Area Plans (i.e. rural areas in the New Territories). For cases involving columbaria, if there are sufficient evidences confirming that the columbaria concerned comprised unauthorised developments after investigation, the Planning Authority will take enforcement and regulatory actions in accordance with the Town Planning Ordinance, including the issue of Enforcement Notices.
On land administration, upon receipt of a complaint about a breach of land use requirements stated in land leases, the LandsD will deploy its staff to carry out inspection on the site concerned. Legal advice will be sought on the lease conditions which may be involved in the actual circumstances, and follow-up actions will be taken as appropriate. Where landowners apply for regularising a breach of land lease requirements, or intend to apply for modification of lease conditions for the provision of columbarium facilities, the LandsD will consider and process the applications. It will normally advise applicants to apply for and obtain the planning permission first, and will consider the views of the relevant departments in the process. If the application is approved, the LandsD will include the appropriate conditions for lease modification, and this may entail the payment of a land premium.
If the operation of columbaria gives rise to street management problems, various departments will take actions in accordance with respective mandate. For the FEHD, it will tackle those problems which have an impact on environmental hygiene within its purview, such as obstruction to street cleansing operations and fouling of streets. Besides, if the burning of paper offerings gives rise to air pollution, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) may despatch staff to conduct on-site investigation under the Air Pollution Control Ordinance, and if any emission of air pollutants from such activities is found to cause a nuisance, the EPD may serve an Air Pollution Abatement Notice to those engaged in the activities to require that relevant measures be taken to eliminate the nuisance. As regards the related problems of noise, obstruction of traffic etc., the Police may take appropriate action within its ambit.
(c) As indicated by our Bureau at the meeting of the Legislative Council Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene in February 2010, we have set up a task force in conjunction with the policy bureaux and departments concerned to study how to address the issue of columbarium development. It is expected that the results of the study will be announced in due course. Promoting information transparency in the trade to protect consumers' interests is one of our work priorities. Besides, we have to explore other possible options to increase the supply of columbarium facilities and facilitate transformation of social traditions by encouraging members of the public to use more sustainable means for cremains disposal and paying tribute to the deceased. As regards regularisation, as mentioned in part (b) of the reply, regularisation is one of the most common means to address the issue of unauthorised columbaria. Under the existing mechanism, there are established channels and procedures for private columbaria to apply to the departments concerned for operating the facilities in an authorised manner (e.g. applying for the relevant planning permission and/or lease modification). The Administration will continue to process applications for regularisation, as well as consider if a licensing scheme should be introduced in future to regulate private columbaria, and consulting the public on this.
Thank you, President.
Ends/Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Issued at HKT 14:43
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