民間團體致
房屋及規劃地政局長孫明揚的公開信

敬啟者：

民間團體致房屋及規劃地政局長孫明揚的公開信

　　去年的天星碼頭保留運動，令本港的文物保育以至城市規劃民主化等議題首次得到政府和輿論的高度重視。在一片沸沸揚揚的氣氛中，政府在處理皇后碼頭的保留問題時顯得較以往積極，譬如按立法會議員要求與工程及建築界的專業團體召開會議。政府終於敞開大門與專業團體對話，我們認為，這一步走對了方向。

　　可是，往後的發展並不如理想。政府確實有跟專業團體對話，但卻以說服團體接納政府的意見為大前提，沒有按對等互信的原則共同商議保育皇后碼頭的最佳方法。簡單來說，經過三輪的討論，政府仍未和專業團體就保育皇后碼頭的最佳方法達成共識，還有很多疑問未解決，很多必要的數據未披露，很多阻礙坦誠溝通的前提未挪開。

　　政府未跟專業團體達到共識，就於三月二十七日單方面向公眾介紹自己認為的「最佳方法」，而游說的對象亦突然由專業團體轉為我們一班民間團體。房屋及規劃地政局的人員這幾天先後致電各團體代表，要求個別地與團體代表會面三十分鐘。我們一致認為這樣的安排有欠妥當。要香港社會就皇后碼頭保留方案達成共識，需要的並不是時間短促的個別約見，而是多個團體的代表聚在一起，在一個公開、坦誠和資訊對等的環境下，共同延續及擴充專業界與政府的討論。這些討論除了工程技術問題外，亦包括對政府諮詢手法的檢討，以及如何令舊建築保育的程序更加合理。

　　我們六個獲邀團體將不會參與和政府的個別會面，並訂於四月四日傍晚六點至晚上九點，於跑馬地禮頓山社區會堂舉行一場公開聽證會。房屋及規劃地政局的官員已經答應出席。

　　此致
房屋及規劃地政局長孫明揚先生

聯署團體：
香港專上學生聯會、
香港可持續發展公民議會、 中西區關注組、
SEE網絡、 共創我們的海港區、
本土行動、 社區文化關注
（以上為獲邀會面的團體）

公民起動、三十會、
環保觸覺、長春社、
想創維港（CE@H）等等
（以上為預備參與公開答問會的其他團體）

二零零七年四月二日

副本致

民政事務局長何志平先生
民政事務局副秘書長梁悅賢女士
康樂及文化事務署助理署長吳志華先生
古物諮詢委員會主席何承天先生

Mr. Michael Suen Ming-yeung
Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands
BY FAX/ EMAIL

2nd April, 2007

Dear Mr. Suen,

Invitation to attend open meeting
on preservation of the Queen's Pier
6:00 – 9:00 pm, 4th April, 2007, Leighton Hill Community Hall

Since last year, the preservation of historical and cultural relics and the question of the democratization of city planning have received unprecedented attention from the government and the media, thanks to the movement for the conservation of the Star Ferry Pier. In the commotion after the demolition of the Star Ferry Pier, the government appeared to have adopted a more proactive attitude on the conservation of the Queen's Pier. Officials of concerned government departments have sat in on several meetings of the Legislative Council to give explanations, and had accepted LegCo members' request to meet with professional organizations of engineers and architects for further discussion. For us, it was a step in the right direction that the government finally agreed to talk to the professional organizations.

However, the development since then has been far from desirable. Government officials have had meetings with the professional organisations, but instead of negotiating on the basis of parity and mutual trust with the objective of finding the best way to preserve the Queen's Pier, the purpose of the meetings for the government was to persuade the professional organisations to accept the government's stand. To put it simply, after three rounds of meetings, the government and the professional organisations have not reached a consensus on the best way to conserve the Queen's Pier. There are still many questions unanswered and many essential data undisclosed. Moreover, many barriers to a frank dialogue are still to be removed.

Even though the government and the professional organizations have not reached any consensus, on 27 th March, the government unilaterally disclosed to the public the "best alternative" she has in mind. And overnight non-governmental organizations such as us have replaced the professional organisations as the target of government's lobbying work.

In the last few days, your department has called up representatives of some of the undersigned organizations to invite them to attend separate meetings each of which is going to last only 30 minutes. We are unanimous in our opinion that the way your department has been organising these meetings is not commendable. If the purpose of this exercise was to reach a consensus in the society on the conservation of the Queen's Pier, what your department should do is not brief separate meetings with non-governmental organizations on a one-to-one basis. Instead a meeting with the presence of all the representatives of non-governmental organisations should be hold on the basis of openness, frankness and equal access to information. The purpose of such a meeting is to continue and also to broaden the discussion the professional organisations have had with the government. Apart from technical problems concerning the conservation of the Queen's Pier, there should also be an evaluation on how public consultations have been conducted, and on ways to improve procedures with regard to the conservation of historical buildings so that the procedures would become more reasonable.

To save your department from having to arrange another meeting, the undersigned groups, some of which have been invited to meet with you, will organise an open meeting on 4 th April, 2007 from 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm at Leighton Hill Community Hall. We would like to invite representatives from your department, the Home Affairs Bureau, Leisure and Cultural Services Department and Antiquities Advisory Board to come to the meeting so that we could all work together towards reaching a real consensus on how Hong Kong could do better in terms of the conservation of historical and cultural relics.   

Yours truly,

Organizations have been invited
to attend separate meetings with your department:

Hong Kong Federation of Students,
The Hong Kong People's Council for Sustainable Development,
Central & Western Development Concern Group,
SEE Network, Designing Harbour District,
Local Action, Community Cultural Concern,

Other organizations which will take part
in the open meeting on 4th April, 2007
at Leighton Hill Community Hall:

Civic Act-up, 30s GROUP, Green Sense, The Conservancy Association, Citizen Envisioning@Harbour(CE@H )

Cc. Mr. Patrick Ho Chi-ping, Secretary for Home Affairs
Cc. Ms. Esther Leung, Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs
Cc. Mr. Louis Ng, Executive Secretary, Leisure and Cultural Services Department
Cc. Mr. Edward Ho, Chairman, Antiquities Advisory Board