LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
area of eight hectares for the Private Sector Participation Scheme were sold and seven sites with a total area of 15 hectares granted for the Home Ownership Scheme.
Land Management and Lease Enforcement
The Task Force (Black Spots) (TFB) was set up in August 1994 following the commitment announced in the 1993 Policy Address to clean up environmental black spots in the New Territories. A 10-year Action Programme based on the anticipated work in the identified action areas was drawn up in 1996, having regard to experience gained in an initial pilot action area. About 70 hectares of both government and private land have been improved and action is in hand to regularise many existing business operations by granting short-term waivers and/or tenancies.
The TFB has also provided support to the Planning Department in identifying suitable new sites for open storage uses, particularly those linked to container industry activities and processing the subsequent land disposal. Recently it expanded its terms of reference to undertake an inter-departmental co-ordinating role aimed to achieve more effective and quicker responses to problems of indiscriminate and unregulated dumping of waste throughout the territory.
In 1996, the Lands Department started a consultancy study Systematic Identification of the Maintenance Responsibility of Slopes in the Territory (SIMAR). Its purpose is to identify the maintenance responsibilities of some 50 000 registrable man-made slopes. The consultant has completed the study of about 32 000 slopes and is expected to produce the results in the form of a register by end-1999. The department is preparing for the disclosure of the register later.
The consultant identified about 5 500 man-made slopes, the maintenance responsibility of which could not be assigned to any parties. It is estimated that by the end of the consultancy study, this number will grow to about 8 000. The Lands Department will assume the land manager role and take up the maintenance responsibility for these slopes. A Slope Maintenance Section was set up in April 1998 to carry out maintenance works for these slopes.
Land Registration
Hong Kong operates a deeds registration system under the Land Registration Ordinance. The Land Registry, comprising the Urban Land Registry and eight New Territories Land Registries, is responsible for registering documents affecting land. The Land Registration Ordinance provides that all land documents registered under it shall have priority according to their respective dates of registration. If a document is registered within one month of execution, priority shall relate to the date of execution of the document. Registration is essential to the protection of a land title, but does not guarantee it.
A land document is registered by delivering it to the appropriate land registry with a memorial containing the essential particulars of the document and the prescribed fee. These particulars are then entered into a computerised land register for the relevant piece of land or property.
Each land register provides a record of transactions affecting a property, from the grant of the lease. The registers, memorials and related land documents are available for search by members of the public at the respective land registries on payment of a fee.
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