A group of private columbarium operators is set to start a legal battle with the government after the expected release today of lists naming qualified operators and those of doubtful legality.
The two lists were compiled by the Development Bureau to help consumers identify trustworthy operators amid the proliferation of private funeral urn storage facilities.
The first will list private columbarium operators that comply with land leases as well as statutory land and town planning requirements. The other will list those that do not.
Operators on both lists will have to meet licensing conditions yet to be spelled out by the government or face the prospect of being shut down.
A group formed by more than 20 private columbariums on the warning list said yesterday that they would seek a judicial review once the government released the lists. Eight of them, including Memorial Park Hong Kong and The Shrine, had earlier received notices from the bureau saying they were on that list.
'This is very unfair, they are steamrollering the industry,' said group spokesman Gilbert Leung Kam-ho, vice-chairman of the Columbarium Merchants Association and executive director of Memorial Park Hong Kong.