ENG-1999 — Page 278

LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES

228

accommodate population targets of 205 000 by 2006 and 320 000 by 2011. The study will be completed in early 2000.

Islands District

Development works on other islands continued mainly to improve the living environment of existing residential districts. Road and drainage improvement works at Cheung Chau old town and Tai O North were completed in late 1999. Reclamation, road and drainage works at the central part and south-western coast of Peng Chau began in March. Construction of the north-east river wall and site formation work adjacent to Lung Tin Estate in Tai O, and the reclamation, road and drainage works at Yung Shue Wan on Lamma Island are in progress.

Building Development

The Private Sector

Private building development continued to slow down. The number of building plan submissions went down from 14 626 in 1998 to 13 178 in 1999, representing a decrease of 10 per cent. A total of 664 buildings with a total floor area of 4.9 million square metres were completed at a cost of $64.51 billion compared with 888 buildings with a total floor area of 5.4 million square metres built at a cost of $57.95 billion in 1998. The number of building sites on which superstructure works started decreased from 213 in 1998 to 184 in 1999, involving total floor areas of 1 899 033 square metres and 3 919 996 square metres respectively.

To lay a better ground work for improving the built environment and hence the quality of living for the community, the Buildings Department commissioned a number of consultancy studies to review requirements for lighting and ventilation of buildings and building maintenance. The introduction of new standards based on the latest technological advances in these areas would help develop Hong Kong as a world-class city.

The site supervision plan system, implemented since 1997, has proved to be effective in improving general site safety conditions. To better protect public safety, preparation work started to extend the system to cover quality control of construction works, initially through administrative and legislative means.

In tackling the problem of unauthorised building works, in its six-year history the Buildings Department launched in September its largest ever clearance operation to remove more than 14 000 items of unauthorised building works (UBWS) from some 307 target buildings in 14 districts. The department started to clear unauthorised rooftop structures from 1 300 single staircase buildings with a view to removing fire hazards posed by these structures. It took action on 144 buildings in 1999.

During the year, 17014 reports on UBWs were processed, 7 590 UBWs were removed and 213 prosecution cases were instigated against offenders for erecting UBWs or failing to comply with removal orders. These resulted in 176 convictions with total fines of $1,988,120. Meanwhile, the department is engaged in finding better solutions to the problem of unauthorised building works in the long term through legislative and administrative means.

Joint inspections with the Fire Services Department were made on 152 prescribed commercial premises (banks, betting centres, jewellery shops, shopping arcades,