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Updated lists of private developments which are required under a land lease or a deed of dedication to provide and manage various public facilities such as open spaces, pedestrian passages and walkways, footbridges, right of way, car parks, etc, are available for public inspection today (August 26).
The list released by the Lands Department now contains a total of 300 developments completed since 1992, an addition of 148 developments to the list first released in March this year in respect of developments completed since 1997. These 148 developments include 103 developments completed between 1992 and 1996, and 45 developments completed after 1996 which were not captioned in the initial list.
In line with the previous practice, a separate list of open spaces in these private developments available for public use is provided for reference. The update has identified five additional private developments with open space available for public use, located in Kennedy Town, Wan Chai, Kowloon Tong, Tai Po and Tuen Mun. A location plan and photos in respect of each of these five open spaces are also made available.
The list complied by the Buildings Department has also been updated by incorporating 240 additional private developments which are required to provide in the main public passages or street widening under deeds of dedication.
The above lists are available from the websites of the Development Bureau (www.devb-plb.gov.hk), Lands Department (www.landsd.gov.hk) and Buildings Department (www.bd.gov.hk).
A spokesman for the Development Bureau said that the release of the information was intended to enhance transparency and public accessibility to those public facilities. Following previous practice, the Lands Department and Buildings Department have written to all the relevant owners, owners' corporations or management companies of those private developments to remind them of their obligations.
Since the initial release of the lists in March this year, the two departments have received a total of 146 enquiries and 29 complaints. The complaints mainly concerned public facilities being partly occupied or not properly opened to the public, and obstructions of public passages. Follow-up actions have been promptly taken, and generally compliance by owners has been observed.
The Lands Department will continue to retrieve information on private developments completed before 1992 and will update the lists when the information is available. The Buildings Department will also update its list as and when necessary. New developments completed containing such public facilities will also be added to the lists in future updates.
The spokesman emphasised that owners of the private developments were contractually obliged to comply with the requirements under the land leases or deeds of dedication on the provision and proper management of these public facilities.
The Lands Department and Buildings Department will conduct spot checks on these facilities to ensure compliance with the requirements.
Members of the public may contact the relevant District Lands Office or Buildings Department through the telephone numbers provided in the lists should they wish to obtain more information about the public facilities, or to report any non-compliance with the specified uses.
Ends/Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Issued at HKT 10:40
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