Heritage battles in Hong Kong reflect people's lack of trust in government and business

Hong Kong recently hosted an international conference on heritage conservation. It did not attract much attention, as of course the main news story was the gridlock over political reform. This was a pity because the speakers voiced ideas that could help us.

The conference focus was on how to fund the preservation of historic buildings.

It is impossible to provide government subsidies to maintain every old structure - many of which are privately owned, anyway. So it has to involve private-sector resources, and that means many buildings must be used for some sort of economically viable activity.

In Hong Kong, this is highly sensitive. Only a few decades ago, historic buildings were just demolished for redevelopment. Since the government started to develop a conservation policy, officials have struggled to keep up with public expectations.

A turning point was reached when the old marine police compound in Tsim Sha Tsui was turned into the 1881 Heritage hotel and luxury shopping mall, which opened in 2009. Public reaction to that - and growing fears of "collusion" between government and developers - made commercial use of historic sites extremely sensitive.

When I was chairing the committee advising on bidders for the old Tai O police station, we ended up with two choices. Both were non-profit, and both aimed to use the building for hotel/hostel purposes. However, one was associated with a property company. This bidder had expertise in hotels, which made it the obvious choice, but the connection to a developer attracted criticism.

Other re-use projects have been controversial. The North Kowloon Magistracy became a branch of an overseas private art and design college, rather than a local group. The Hollywood Road police married quarters became the successful PMQ showcase for creative talent, but relies on big-brand tenants to subsidise the start-ups' rents.