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Historical heritage is important to a city’s
identity and character. When a historical building is demolished,
the loss is irrevocable. If Hong Kong is really to become Asia’s
World City, we must preserve our valuable cultural heritage.
The Conservancy Association considers that natural and cultural
heritage is one such invaluable pubic asset that belongs to society
and posterity. It is part of the “social capital” of Hong Kong. We
preserve heritage buildings not just for their architectural merits,
but for the character and substance of the society which they
embody, the soften side of Hong Kong history and society which Hong
Kong stands for. Management of this asset in a sustainable manner
will not only enhance our quality of life, but also contribute to
Hong Kong’s competitiveness. To take a stronger stand in heritage,
against vested interests, also reflects a confidence in ourselves.
In many ways, heritage conservation is also a matter of sustainable
development and cross-generational equity. We do not have the right
to deplete our natural or cultural resource, especially if they are
non-renewable, to the detriment of our future generations.
We believe that a splendid heritage conservation policy is crucial
to the conservation of built heritage in Hong Kong. We suggest the
Government to include the following suggestions into the New
Heritage Conservation Policy:
We propose that the way to substantiate the policy statement is to
make a commitment to benchmark Hong Kong’s heritage conservation
policy with that of international standards. This can be done simply
by committing to accede to well-recognized charters and principles,
of which we would propose here:
We propose to enhance the present policy and administrative
framework:
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Requiring all declared monuments and important
graded buildings to display information about the site history;
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Making more use of Lord Wilson's Trust in
heritage preservation projects;
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Devoting more resources to the Antiquities and
Monuments Office and the Antiquities Advisory Board so as to
speed up the task of grading and declaration of monuments;
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Introducing an administrative guideline to make
it necessary for prior notice to the AMO to be given for any
development proposal or building alteration to all post-war
buildings;
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Requiring the Government Property Agent to
consult the AAB for use of every historical building in its
hands;
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Developing some sort of statement of
significance to guide after-use of existing or acquired heritage
sites;
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Documenting all the history of all existing
heritage/ cultural sites of HK
We suggest four ways in which heritage can be
better protected through government policy; namely, planning
control, government resumption, public-private partnership, and
transfer of development rights.
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Planning control: new zoning mechanism
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Introducing new planning tools, such as “Sites
of significant historical value”, “Sites of significant rural
character”, “Sites of significant cultural value” and adopting
precautionary principle into planning guidelines.
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Government resumption or buy out in exceptional
circumstances
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Public-private partnership
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Non in situ exchange – transfer of development
rights
We suggest the Government to re-deploy public
resources to support LCSD and/or District Boards to launch more
heritage conservation projects
We propose that a new Heritage Impact Assessment Bill be introduced
and the creation of one single Conservation Authority to undertake
various aspects of conservation.
Last but not the least, we advocate the establishment of Heritage
Trust, which could be created as a public-private partnership, with
both government and the private sector contributing to its start-up.
It should be well-resourced enough to buy up land and buildings of
high heritage value and manage them, hopefully for a sustainable
return.
For details,, please read our position paper,
Heritage for
the People on our website . |
