State-legislated conservation programmes are not just simply about labelling buildings “heritage buildings” to be conserved.
From Malaysia’s The Star.
Penang heritage building owners destroying building values
By K. KASTURI DEWI
GEORGE TOWN: Heritage building owners in George Town are destroying the historical value of their buildings at a “worrying” rate and, if left unchecked, the entire face of the city will be transformed within two years.
State Exco member Chow Kon Yeow said a total of 57 heritage building owners had violated heritage buildings guidelines between December last year and January this year.
“Most of them had carried out illegal extensions while others had not applied for permits to repair their buildings,” he told a press conference on the official launch of the conservation information counter at the World Heritage office in Lebuh Armenia Monday.
Chow said the state government together with the Penang Municipal Council and the World Heritage Office (WHO) had taken immediate steps to check why owners were not complying with the guidelines.
He said among the measures taken was to hold roundtable talks with all the relevant parties such as the owners, contractors, renovators and even property brokers.
“A series of five roundtable talks on development plans, proposal and control, licensing, enforcement, utilities and a roundup to present the concrete proposals will be held until March 22.
“We are also putting the mechanism into place to check the situation from worsening by looking into empowering a special task force which was set up in January to issue 24-hour stop work order on owners who do not comply with the heritage guidelines when repairing or renovating their buildings,” he said.
The task force dedicated to monitoring world heritage sites in George Town comprises of six personnel from the council’s enforcement, building, planning and engineering departments who are on the ground daily.
Currently the council could only issue a stop work order after giving the building owners a grace period of about 14 days.
“Most of the times however, within these 14 days the whole building is torn down and it is too late for us to save it,” he said.
WHO head Maimunah Mohd Sharif who was also present said the WHO, its committee together with council’s heritage unit would take to the streets to talk to residents to explain the need to comply with heritage guidelines when renovating or repairing their buildings.
“The pilot project which will start this month is part of the state, WHO and the council’s efforts to educate and to reach out to all parties to play their part in conserving the heritage aspect of their buildings,” she said.
She added that WHO was working with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in conservation of buildings to draw up an inventory of suppliers of materials and contractors of heritage buildings.
Maimunah urged owners to seek advise from WHO on how they could repair and renovate their buildings in compliance with the guidelines set.
The WHO’s conservation information counter which will be launched on March 6 is from 9am to noon from Mondays to Fridays and on every first Saturday of the month.
For appointments, contact 04-2616606.
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