ENG-2011 — Page 287

Infrastructure Development and Heritage Conservation 243

Heritage Conservation

Heritage Conservation Policy and New Initiatives

The Government's heritage conservation policy is to protect, conserve and revitalise as appropriate historical and heritage sites and buildings through relevant and sustainable approaches for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations. In implementing this policy, due regard is given to development needs in the public interest, respect for private property rights, budgetary considerations, cross-sector collaboration and active engagement of stakeholders and the general public. The Commissioner for Heritage's Office (CHO) in the Development Bureau has made good progress on its heritage conservation initiatives in 2011.

In the public domain:

(a) of the six historic buildings under Batch of the 'Revitalising Historic Buildings through Partnership Scheme' (Revitalisation Scheme), namely the Old Tai O Police Station, the Fong Yuen Study Hall, the former Lai Chi Kok Hospital, Lui Seng Chun, Mei Ho House and the former North Kowloon Magistracy (NKM), the NKM was converted into the Savannah College of Art and Design Hong Kong Campus and the school started operation in September 2010. The renovation work of the Old Tai O Police Station was completed in 2011 and the remaining four projects will be completed in 2012;

(b) Funding support for the renovation work of three historic buildings under Batch II of the Revitalisation Scheme, namely the Old Tai Po Police Station, the Blue House Cluster and Stone Houses will be sought in the 2011-12 Legislative Council session;

(C)

Batch III of the Revitalisation Scheme was launched in October 2011. Applications are being invited for the adaptive re-use of four historic buildings including King Yin Lei, Haw Par Mansion, Bridges Street Market and the former Fanling Magistracy;

(d) Since September 2009, a new requirement has been in place, compelling all new capital works projects to undergo a heritage impact assessment to avoid damage to heritage sites, or if damage is unavoidable, to explore ways of reducing the damage;

(e) Gradings of 1 2011 historic buildings in the territory were confirmed by the Antiquities Advisory Board (AAB) under a comprehensive grading exercise to provide an objective basis for guiding future conservation efforts;

(f)

One privately-owned historic building, namely School House of St Stephen's College and two government-owned historic buildings, namely the fortified

1 This figure includes items on the list of 1 444 historic buildings in the territory, for which a public consultation exercise on their proposed grading was carried out from March to September 2009, as well as new items proposed for grading.