The waiting time for public housing has hit a 23-year high, and social welfare facilities continue to be in short supply. However, "Hong Kong 01" found that the government has not been able to quickly recover valuable land resources that have been abandoned.
The old school building of St. Peter's Secondary School in Aberdeen has been abandoned for 10 years. Although an audit report in 2015 revealed that the Education Bureau did not return the old school building according to the school relocation clause, the authorities have still delayed the recovery of the land involved, let alone clarify it. It was not until the end of last year that the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, which runs the school, was again urged to return the school premises, and the Lands Department would follow up with the other side.
Some concerned groups have criticized the government for its administrative confusion over land management. In the face of land shortage, it did not cherish the precious land, so that a large number of school buildings located in the core area "baked in the sun". The school building involved has been abandoned for 10 years. Exceeding the lease term of transitional housing will make subdivided households miss a great opportunity to improve their housing environment. It seems that the government is not determined to solve the dire housing problem at the grassroots level.
The government has pushed nearly 200 old school buildings for lease, and nearly half of them have not yet been planned. Only 6 buildings have been converted into transitional houses.
St. Peter's Secondary School moved to a new school building in 2012. According to the service contract signed by the school and the Education Bureau, including a land resumption clause, the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong is required to return its old school building at 220 Aberdeen Avenue to the Education Bureau. However, after 10 years, the land for the secondary school building has not been "separated" with the land for the church, which means that the land is still private land and has not been returned to the government.
The Education Bureau reminded parishes to "return the land" last year
The Education Bureau only indicated to the Southern District Council that the old school building of St. Peter's Secondary School did not need to be reserved for school purposes after being questioned by the local district councillors earlier. The parish was reminded many times to return the land.
The land involved is divided into three parts, including the high school building of the middle school, the low block of the middle school lent and rebuilt by St. Peter's Catholic Primary School, which moved to the school in 1988, and the church "St. Peter's Church", which was also converted from the primary school. There has been much controversy in the past as to whether some of the primary school land that has been converted into a secondary school needs to be returned.
It has been 10 years since the middle school involved was relocated, and the old school building is still intact.
The reporter went to inspect the former school building of the middle school. A warning sign of "Private Place" was posted on the gate of the lower block of the middle school, and others were strictly prohibited from entering. However, the public could still enter the lower block of the school through the passageway of the church, and the gate on Pei Lu Road was also untouched. The gate can also be accessed by pushing open the large gate, which is different from the low seat, and does not display any warning against entry.
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The school is full of dust and graffiti on the walls
Regardless of whether it is a high- or low-seat school building, the campus is full of dust and overgrown with weeds. Tables, chairs and lockers have been dumped. They have apparently been abandoned for a long time. However, there are graffiti on the walls. I believe there are many people. Secretly broke into the "ruin expedition." The vacant school building was revealed to have traces of explosions and suspected explosives the year before.
There are different opinions on whether to return the land occupied by the lower block of the secondary school
As for the land to be returned, does the low block of the secondary school converted from the former primary school building need to be returned together?
The diocese issued a statement in 2015 stating that the low block of the old secondary school was the land “lent” by the diocese. After the secondary school was relocated, the low block was returned to the diocese. The diocese also agreed with the government to divide the high block to return the land.
However, when the Education Bureau responded to the enquiry, it revealed that it had asked the diocese to return the old school buildings of the connected primary school together, but the proposal was not accepted by the diocese. The diocese has commissioned a consultant to discuss the return plan with the Lands Department in March.
The government is reviewing the information provided by the diocese and will continue to discuss return options with the diocese.
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Development Bureau: School premises are still "private" if the land is not returned
The Development Bureau, the Lands Department and the Planning Department replied that they are reviewing the statutory land use of the school involved in accordance with the central allocation mechanism, but the school site has not been returned to the government and is still private land. The issue of returning the school premises will be followed up with the school sponsoring body, including determining the scope of the land to be returned, etc., so as to return the old school premises to the government as soon as possible.
In other words, the incident has been delayed for ten years, and the government has still not been able to determine the extent of the land that the diocese must return.
The Audit Commission's audit report as early as 2015 revealed that the old school building of St. Peter's Secondary School was one of the pieces of private land that had not been recovered by the Education Bureau. It will cut off all the public facilities of the returned part, that is, only the mountain road of Beilu Road will be accessible. Therefore, it is considered that "it is not practical for the government to use the returned part."
Chen Jianqing, a member of the local research society, criticized that the Education Bureau, the Planning Department, and the Lands Department, among other departments, "interacted with each other" and failed to pay attention to making good use of existing land resources, leaving the land in the core areas "baked in the sun".
(File photo/Photo by Ou Jiale)
Chen Jianqing, a member of the local research society, criticized the Education Bureau, the Planning Department and the Lands Department as "interfering with each other", and the problem of improper land management occurred from time to time. There is one case...even the return is not returned. It is really unreasonable. Ten years is far longer than the one-year period of transitional housing. Basically, it has a great social function. "
He believes that the cause of the problem is that the government does not pay attention to and makes good use of existing land resources, and only focuses on creating new land as a land strategy. After the private sector has been fighting for many years in the past, the government has launched a policy to revitalize idle school buildings for short-term rental by groups. The short-term school rental plan has not been well publicized, and many idle land in core areas has not been used yet. It is recommended that the authorities refer to the land sharing plan and set up a dedicated office to handle the work of various departments.
After reviewing the information, an audit report involving vacant schools was published in 2015. In addition to St. Peter's Secondary School, the former Wanchai School, Sheung Shui Mission Primary School and the old school buildings of the YMCA Middle School were also revealed to have not recovered the land and wasted public resources. Part of the reason was that the Education Bureau did not specify in the school relocation clause that it would return the old school premises, or even exempted schools from returning the old school premises.
After many years, the Wan Chai School on Oi Kwan Road is expected to be demolished next year for the relocation of the special school Hong Chi Lions Club Morning Gang School in 2026; Sheung Shui Xuan Dao Primary School did not specify the terms for returning the school. The land was sold to the Chinese Missionary Association, which was running a school, and converted into a church at a land price of about 50 million; while the former site of the YMCA Middle School located on Bilgers Street, Sheung Wan was handed over to the school sponsoring organization, the Chinese YMCA and Generations Christian Education to jointly run an international primary school” Island Christian Academy”.
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