Enquiry about land use review on vacant school sites (Code on Access to Information)

[Simon H WANG]

Dear Sir/Madam  

          I refer to an op-ed piece published by Mr Chiu Kam-kuen in South China Morning Post on 14 Jan 2020 https://www.scmp.com/property/hong-kong-china/article/3045858/hong-kong-has-dozens-disused-school-sites-standing-idle  In the article, Mr Chiu refers to the 183 vacant school premises in HK, 70% of which are allocated for GIC uses.  He also suggests that the government should convert these sites to public housing.  Here are the questions for the department to answer under the Code on Access to Information. 

1) Please provide a list of vacant school premises including their locations, land size and other relevant information. I have looked up the open data website https://data.gov.hk/en-datasets/provider/hk-pland?order=name&file-content=no but could not find the data under your department. Please consider release the data via open data plan.  

2) How many times have the premises mentioned in Q.1 been used by NGO or government departments/bureaus in the past 10 years? Please provide the details of the uses including the names of organizations/government department/bureau, the purposes of using the premises and the duration.  

3) "For instance, the site of SKH Stanley Village Primary School, which is zoned for GIC uses, has been idle for 18 years." Please list the premises along with the number of years each premise has been idle.  

4) "As pointed out by the Audit Commission in 2015, leaving school sites vacant is a waste of the city’s precious land resources." Please provide the Audit Commission's document on this matter and the department's reply and other related documents. 

5) "Of the 183 vacant school premises, 18 were recommended to be developed for long-term residential use while most of the remaining premises would be retained for GIC uses." Please provide the report on the recommendations.  

Please also notice the following statement about our expectations of how this request should be handled.

While we appreciate the government’s efforts to maintain transparency and accountability under the Code on Access to Information, we also notice considerable variation among different departments and bureaux in their responses to our Code on Access to Information applications. We would appreciate it if your department/bureau could maintain professional standards when answering our inquiries. Specifically, we expect answers to each and every one of our questions separately rather than an answer without clearly indicating which questions were addressed.  In case of referencing to websites or documents, we need the specific paragraphs in the source texts that are relevant to our questions to be highlighted. If no information is available regarding some of our questions, please indicate that is the case explicitly so we can follow up properly. We will definitely ask our case to be reviewed by a more senior official in your department/bureau if our request is not properly handled. If it is believed that other department/bureau may possess information we request, please feel free to forward the request including our personal information.  

          

Simon Wang, Ph.D.

Lecturer

Language Centre 

Hong Kong Baptist University 

Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong 

http://lc.hkbu.edu.hk/staff_simon.php  

Writing for the Public Project 

https://sites.google.com/a/hkbu.edu.hk/write4public/home

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[Simon H WANG]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: <sh...@pland.gov.hk>
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2020 at 11:56
Subject: Enquiry about land use review on vacant school sites (Code on Access to Information)
To: Simon H WANG <simo...@hkbu.edu.hk>
Cc: <enq...@pland.gov.hk>

Dear Mr. Wang,

I refer to your email of 15 July 2020 requesting information under the Code on Access to Information.  Our response is as follows:

Q.1 Please provide a list of vacant school premises including their locations, land size and other relevant information. I have looked up the open data website https://data.gov.hk/en-datasets/provider/hk-pland?order=name&file-content=no but could not find the data under your department. Please consider release the data via open data plan.  

A.1 Information on vacant school premises can be found in the Planning Department's website: https://www.pland.gov.hk/pland_en/info_serv/vsp/index.html .  Planning Department does not maintain the latest land status of individual vacant school premises which may change with time and their site areas subject to survey.  You may wish to approach the managing parties of vacant school premises for up-to-date information.

Q.2 How many times have the premises mentioned in Q.1 been used by NGO or government departments/bureaus in the past 10 years? Please provide the details of the uses including the names of organizations/government department/bureau, the purposes of using the premises and the duration.  

A.2 Planning Department does not maintain such information on management and utilisation of  vacant school premises.

Q.3 "For instance, the site of SKH Stanley Village Primary School, which is zoned for GIC uses, has been idle for 18 years." Please list the premises along with the number of years each premise has been idle.  

A.3 Planning Department does not maintain such information on management and utilisation of vacant school premises.

Q.4 "As pointed out by the Audit Commission in 2015, leaving school sites vacant is a waste of the city’s precious land resources." Please provide the Audit Commission's document on this matter and the department's reply and other related documents. 

A.4 The document in question is Director of Audit's Report No. 65, which can be found at the Audit Commission's website: https://www.aud.gov.hk/eng/pubpr_arpt/rpt_65.htm.  The responses from the concerned Government departments on the concerned audit report can be found at Chapter 3 of Part 8 of the Public Accounts Committee Report No. 65 of the Legislative Council which is accessible at the Legislative Council website : https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr15-16/english/pac/reports/pac_rpt_65.htm      

Q.5 "Of the 183 vacant school premises, 18 were recommended to be developed for long-term residential use while most of the remaining premises would be retained for GIC uses." Please provide the report on the recommendations.  

A.5 Information on vacant school premises can be found in the Planning Department's website: https://www.pland.gov.hk/pland_en/info_serv/vsp/index.html  

Should you have any queries on the above, please contact me at 2231 4651.

Regards,
S. H. LEE
TP/HOLS(2)
for Director of Planning
Planning Department




----- Forwarded by enquire1/PLAND/HKSARG on 15/07/2020 10:08 -----

From:        enquire1/PLAND/HKSARG
To:        Simon H WANG <simo...@hkbu.edu.hk>
Date:        15/07/2020 10:06
Subject:        Re: Enquiry about land use review on vacant school sites (Code on Access to Information)

---

Our file ref: (15/20) in TS I/AI/1 Pt. 63

Dear Mr. WANG,

We acknowledge receipt of your application under the Code on Access to Information about the captioned matter.  Your application is now being processed.

Regards,


(C. T. IP)

for Access to Information Officer
Planning Department
Our Enquiry Hotline: 2231 5000

--

[Simon H WANG]

Dear Sir/Madam 

             I am writing to lodge a complaint against the staff at the Planning Department for the ways it handled my Code on Access to Information request. While the department may not possess the information I requested, it should have transferred my request to other departments and/or bureaux for follow-up. I am deeply disappointed with the department's performance and lack of professionalism. Please kindly follow up.   

My address is

The Language Centre, 

Hong Kong Baptist University

Kowloon Tong 

My phone no. 34117044 

Please kindly follow up. 

Yours sincerely

Simon Wang 

[Simon H WANG]

Dear Sir/Madam

              I refer to my questions addressing the Planning Department on July 22. It was regrettable that the department does not possess most of the information I requested and did not refer my requests to other departments or bureaux. Please kindly process my request of information under the Code on Access to Information.  

  I refer to an op-ed piece published by Mr Chiu Kam-kuen in South China Morning Post on 14 Jan 2020 https://www.scmp.com/property/hong-kong-china/article/3045858/hong-kong-has-dozens-disused-school-sites-standing-idle  In the article, Mr Chiu refers to the 183 vacant school premises in HK, 70% of which are allocated for GIC uses.  He also suggests that the government should convert these sites to public housing.  Here are the questions for the department to answer under the Code on Access to Information. 

1) Please provide a list of vacant school premises including their locations, land size and other relevant information. I have looked up the open data website https://data.gov.hk/en-datasets/provider/hk-pland?order=name&file-content=no but could not find the data under your department. Please consider release the data via open data plan.  

2) How many times have the premises mentioned in Q.1 been used by NGO or government departments/bureaus in the past 10 years? Please provide the details of the uses including the names of organizations/government department/bureau, the purposes of using the premises and the duration.  

3) "For instance, the site of SKH Stanley Village Primary School, which is zoned for GIC uses, has been idle for 18 years." Please list the premises along with the number of years each premise has been idle.  

Here are the additional questions for the bureau to answer also under the Code on Access to Information: 

4) According to the Geoinfo map https://www.map.gov.hk/gm/map/ there are 47 vacant school premises and 892 government sites for GIC uses.  32 school premises available for applications; 15 applications under review; government sites 3 receiving applications 28 applications under review; 861 available for applications.  Could you provide me a spreadsheet of the detailed information of each premise or site?  

Please also notice the following statement about our expectations of how this request should be handled.

While we appreciate the government’s efforts to maintain transparency and accountability under the Code on Access to Information, we also notice considerable variation among different departments and bureaux in their responses to our Code on Access to Information applications. We would appreciate it if your department/bureau could maintain professional standards when answering our inquiries. Specifically, we expect answers to each and every one of our questions separately rather than an answer without clearly indicating which questions were addressed.  In case of referencing to websites or documents, we need the specific paragraphs in the source texts that are relevant to our questions to be highlighted. If no information is available regarding some of our questions, please indicate that is the case explicitly so we can follow up properly. We will definitely ask our case to be reviewed by a more senior official in your department/bureau if our request is not properly handled. If it is believed that other department/bureau may possess information we request, please feel free to forward the request including our personal information.   

Thanks in advance. 

Yours sincerely

Simon Wang 

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: <sh...@pland.gov.hk>

[Simon H WANG]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Simon H WANG <simo...@hkbu.edu.hk>
Date: Tue, Oct 6, 2020 at 9:42 AM
Subject: Re: Enquiry about land use review on vacant school sites (Code on Access to Information)

To: <sh...@pland.gov.hk>
Cc: <enq...@pland.gov.hk>

Dear Sir/Madam 

                  I am writing to request a review of the Code on Access to Information application dated on 15 July and your reply on 22 July. If your department does not possess information regarding Q1-3, how can you review applications from NGOs to use the sites? If you do not have info regarding Q2 and Q3 how can you make the recommendations under the CCH mechanism?  I am very disappointed with the ways you handled my application as your answers were not helpful at all to address some important issues related to land use in Hong Kong. 

Yours sincerely

Simon Wang 

[Simon H WANG]

Information on vacant school premises can be found in the Planning Department's website: https://www.pland.gov.hk/pland_en/info_serv/vsp/index.html .  Planning Department does not maintain the latest land status of individual vacant school premises which may change with time and their site areas subject to survey.  You may wish to approach the managing parties of vacant school premises for up-to-date information.  

Could you provide the contact info of the managing parties of the vacant school premises?  Please process my request under the Code on Access to Information as soon as possible. 

Simon Wang 

[Simon H WANG]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: <tsn...@pland.gov.hk>
Date: Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 7:01 PM
Subject: Fw: Enquiry about land use review on vacant school sites (Code on Access to Information)
To: <simo...@hkbu.edu.hk>
Cc: <enq...@pland.gov.hk>

Dear Mr Wang,

I refer to your email of 6.10.2020 requesting for a review of the subject enquiry dated 15.7.2020 and our reply dated 22.7.2020 under the Code on Access to Information.

Upon your request, our Departmental Complaints Officer has conducted a review of the case.  In accordance with the existing central clearing house (CCH) mechanism for reviewing vacant school premises (VSP), whenever the Education Bureau determines that a VSP is no longer required for school use, the Planning Department (PlanD) will review the long-term use of that site in consultation with relevant departments.  In so doing, it will take into account the situations and environments of the districts concerned, ancillary transport facilities as well as other relevant factors in assessing whether the VSP are suitable for Government, Institution and Community facilities or other uses (including residential development) so as to ensure optimal land use.

Under the CCH mechanism, PlanD does not review applications from NGOs for using VSP or make reference to such applications in giving recommendations.

As regards your request made on the same day of 6.10.2020 for the contact information of the managing parties of the VSP, please be advised that each VSP has its own managing party and the corresponding information is listed out in PlanD’s webpage on VSP [https://www.pland.gov.hk/pland_en/info_serv/vsp/vsp.html].  Hyperlinks to the managing parties, which are concerned departments, websites with contact information provided therein are also provided on the webpage.  As PlanD is not involved in the management of VSP, we do not have the readily available contact information of the concerned officers. Nevertheless, we can provide the enquiry telephone numbers / emails of these departments to you if needed.  Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact Ms Yvonne Leong, Senior Town Planner/Housing and Office Land Supply at 2231 4659 or Mr C T Ip, Principal Survey Officer/Technical Administration at 2231 4761.

If you are not satisfied with the above decision, you may bring the matter to The Ombudsman, whose address is -

30/F, China Merchants Tower
Shun Tak Centre
168-200 Connaught Road Central
Hong Kong
(Tel: 2629 0555, Fax: 2882 8149, Home Page: www.ombudsman.hk )

Regards,

(Ms Tammy KONG)

Access to Information Officer
Planning Department

----- Forwarded by enquire1/PLAND/HKSARG on 06/10/2020 15:37 -----

From:        enquire1/PLAND/HKSARG
To:        Simon H WANG <simo...@hkbu.edu.hk>
Date:        06/10/2020 15:36
Subject:        Fw: Enquiry about land use review on vacant school sites (Code on Access to Information)

---

Our file ref: (15/20) in TS I/AI/1 Pt. 63

Dear Mr. WANG,

This department acknowledges receipt of your email dated 6-10-2020 below requesting for a review of the captioned "Code on Access to Information" application.  Your request is now being processed.

Regards,


(C. T. IP)

for Director of Planning
Planning Department

Our Enquiry Hotline: 2231 5000

----- Forwarded by enquire1/PLAND/HKSARG on 06/10/2020 15:23 -----

[Simon H WANG]

Dear Sir/Madam 

             Thanks for your message regarding the review of my Access to Information (ATI) request. I am currently teaching a General Education course at Hong Kong Baptist University in which students investigate various social issues and contact the government bureaus/departments for information about their policies and decisions.  One team of 5 students are looking into the vacant school sites and whether the sites have been/will be productively used to meet the demands of our society.  Ms Yuechen Wang (one of the students) is focusing on the CCH review mechanism for recommending the use of vacant sites. Here are the questions we would like the department to answer under the Code on Access to Information.  

Q.1 Please provide more information about how the reviews are conducted under the CCH review mechanism. Specifically, what measures does the department take to ensure the recommendations made will be followed by the managing parties? Since recommendations have been made to the 43 sites managed by private entities as well as those controlled by the government, please address the question with respect to these two types of land sites.  

Q.2 When was the CCH review mechanism implemented to make recommendations for these sites?  According to the Audit Commission report, many sites have been idle since 2005. Please provide info about when the sites were reviewed and when the recommendations were made.  

Q.3 Please explain how the recommendation of using the land for G/IC purposes are made over other uses such as residential including the detailed process of reaching such conclusions and the factors that have been considered. If possible, please provide a report of one of the sites as a case study.

Q4  Regarding the 43 sites that the department refers to as "wholly or mostly on private land and their utilization generally depends on private land owners’ initiative". https://www.pland.gov.hk/pland_en/info_serv/vsp/vsp.html  We'd like to point out that the wording is technically inaccurate because these land sites are not privately owned but leased by the government. Please let us know if the department agrees to our comments. If so, please consider revising the document. If not, please explain.  

Q5. Question 4 is not just a linguistic issue but relates to the concern over whether the department could ensure that land in HK, whether managed by the government or leased to private entities, will be productively used.  We would like to know what measures have been taken or will be taken by the Planning Department to ensure the 43 sites will be used productively instead of kept idle indefinitely. If ensuring the land in HK is productively used as much as possible is not the mission of the Planning Department, please let us know which department/Bureau should we approach regarding this matter.  

Q6. 64 sites (33%) on government land / to-be-surrendered private land will be put to long-term uses in line with the recommendation under the CCH mechanism (Category A(1)), or will be put to short-term uses pending implementation of the permanent uses (Category A(2)).  For the A(1) sites, we'd like to know if the department has specific timelines in terms of when the land will be put to long-term uses; if so please provide the timeline; if not, how can the department prevent the land from being idle indefinitely?  For the A(2) sites, we'd like to know if the department has timelines for the land to be used for permanent purposes.  

Since we plan to forward the answers to the ATI requests to the Legislative Council and the answers might be posted on the Legco website, please kindly furnish a reply using the department letterhead in PDF format by email.  

The course I am teaching is an experiential learning course that encourages students to seek opportunities to engage the community. Therefore, I hope we could have the opportunity to meet with a government official to discuss these matters in person. Please let us know if this is possible.   

Thanks in advance. 

Yours sincerely 

Simon Wang