Following is a question by the Hon Ho Chung-tai and a written reply by the Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (May 21):
Question:
Regarding the building numbers of ground floor shops, will the Government inform this Council :
(1) upon the allocation of building numbers to newly completed buildings by the Rating and Valuation Department, of the party responsible for assigning individual numbers to ground floor shops of the buildings concerned; if the numbers are to be assigned by the developers, whether they have been issued with guidelines on the format of building numbers of ground floor shops; if so, of the details of such guidelines;
(2) whether it has surveyed the display of building numbers by ground floor shops in the past three years; if so, when the last survey was conducted, the number of ground floor shops covered in the survey and the number of them with building numbers displayed on the premises; and
(3) of the measures, other than issuing warning letters, taken by the authorities to ensure the proper display of building numbers by the owners or occupiers of ground floor shops?
Reply:
President,
(1) To ensure that building numbers are properly displayed at all new buildings, the Rating and Valuation Department will allocate building numbers to new buildings within one month of their completion. The Department will also provide the owners and developers with guidelines on the size and location of the building numbers to be displayed and monitor subsequent compliance.
In general, the Rating and Valuation Department will also allocate building numbers to ground floor shops. However, for shops located inside a shopping arcade which share a common entrance, the Department will only allocate a building number to the entrance of the shopping arcade. The numbering of individual shops within the shopping arcade will be left to the developer.
(2) The Rating and Valuation Department carried out a building numbering campaign in December 2000. In the campaign, the Department conducted sample surveys on 3,840 ground floor shops. The results showed that 3,221 shops, or about 84 per cent of the shops inspected, had their building numbers properly displayed.
(3) Apart from issuing warning letters, the Rating and Valuation Department's actions are mainly geared towards increasing awareness of the importance of properly displaying building numbers. In most cases, the building numbers are not displayed because they have been removed or damaged during the course of renovation. Therefore, when the Department becomes aware that a property has been let or is undergoing renovation work, it will issue a letter to the owners/occupiers concerned to remind them to properly display the building number after the completion of such works.
Furthermore, the Rating and Valuation Department launches a building numbering campaign every two or three years to ensure the proper display of building numbers. The next campaign will be carried out in December this year when the Department will issue letters to owners/occupiers of all ground floor shops and owners' corporations to remind them to display building numbers properly. The Department will also conduct sample surveys and assess the need for other follow up actions.
End/Wednesday, May 21, 2003
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