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1. Heritage row over old building brews

1. Heritage row over old building brews
CHLOE LAI , SCMP 2 February 2007

Angry district councillors yesterday demanded a report on the future of one of the city's oldest Chinese tenement blocks be released after learning it would not be made public until a heritage policy review had been completed.

They were reacting after the government said a consultant's report on how to use the 75-year-old Lui Seng Chun building would stay confidential until the Built Heritage Conservation Policy, that could take years to finish, was complete.

The review began in 2004 and there is no timetable for its completion.

The issue over the now-vacant building threatened to engulf the government in another heritage row, hard on the heels of the furore over the destruction of the Star Ferry pier and amid continuing efforts to save Queen's Pier, which is also slated to be demolished soon.

"We are very disappointed by the announcement," Yau Tsim Mong district council chairman Chan Man-yau said. "What is the point of keeping [the consultant's report] confidential? It is not a state secret.

"I believe the building will remain vacant after Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen has completed his next five-year term."

The four-storey building in Mong Kok, built in 1931 by Kowloon Motor Bus co-founder Liu Leung, was donated to the government by Liu's family in 2003.

The Antiquities and Monuments Office commissioned a consultant to study how to use the grade one historic building.

Relevant departments were asked to comment on the report after the consultant completed it last year.

Assistant district officer Chris Fung Pan-chung told district councillors yesterday that the antiquities office was analysing the comments, but would release the report together with the Built Heritage Conservation Policy.

Lee Ho-yin, director of the University of Hong Kong 's architectural conservation programme, also urged the government to release the report.

"I believe they are holding the report because they are still considering the most appropriate compatible use for the building. The usable area of the building is very small, which restricts its new use," Mr Ho said.

"But I think they should release the report so the district council and the experts can comment on it. Their comments will enrich the discussion on the Built Heritage Conservation Policy."

The ground floor of the building originally housed Liu's Chinese medicine shop, which sold remedies for bone and muscular problems, while he and his family lived on the upper floors. His descendents lived there until the 1980s.