XN000022-1997-02-26 — Page 48

Reply:

(c)

Mr President,

(a)

(b)

(c)

33-

whether the noise problems faced by the above schools were related to improper planning in the selection of school sites; if not, what the reasons for the noise problems were; if so, what improvements will be made on the future selection of school sites?

Of the 52 schools completed in the past three years, 19 of them required noise abatement facilities such as sound barriers and noise insulation to mitigate traffic noise impacts.

The addresses of the school projects requiring noise abatement and the noise mitigation facilities installed are detailed in the attached table.

In selecting suitable school sites, factors such as noise, site size, topographical features, accessibility and convenience to students in the catchment area are taken into account. The detailed provision standards and locational guidelines are set out in the Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines and are adhered to as far as practicable. Sites which are affected by significant noise sources such as busy trunk roads are normally ruled out. Nonetheless, given the scarcity of land, some sites reserved for school use could not meet all the locational requirements. An Environmental Review is therefore conducted on each school site to assess the potential environmental impact and to identify practicable preventive and mitigation measures. For school sites affected by potential road traffic noise, measures such as setback from the road, protective building layout and sound barrier at the site boundary are implemented where practicable to minimise the noise impact. If after implementing these measures the residual noise impact still exceeds the planning standard of 65 dB(A), noise insulation will be provided as an additional measure to ensure a quiet internal learning environment.