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The Housing Department plans to extend the smoking ban to cover all common areas in the Housing Authority public housing estates.
The revised policy, once endorsed by the authority's Subsidised Housing Committee, will be included into the Marking Scheme for Estate Management Enforcement in public housing estates (Marking Scheme) from April 1, 2007. Estate tenants committing the misdeed will be allotted with five penalty points without any prior warning.
"The proposal has gained unanimous support from the Estate Management Advisory Committees of public housing estates upon consultation. Meetings were conducted to collect tenants' views over the past two months," the Deputy Director of Housing (Estate Management), Mr Lau Kai-hung said.
He pointed out that common areas included roads, pedestrian paths and pleasure grounds such as open areas, rest gardens, play areas and sports grounds within the estates.
"Taking the persistent smoking tenants into consideration, the committees agreed that smoking areas distanced from leisure and sporting facilities or thoroughfares should be demarcated," Mr Lau said.
"It was recommended that no more than five smoking areas should be designated in each estate irrespective of its size. Bordered by yellow or white lines, each location will be of about five square meters enclosing the periphery of a bench," he said.
Addressing the concern of non-tenants smoking in the estates, Mr Lau said housing staff who were empowered by the Housing Ordinance could order non-tenant smokers to leave.
Following the Smoking (Public Health) (Amendment) Ordinance which took effect on January 1, 2007, the authority extended the smoking restriction under the Marking Scheme (Note) from public lifts to all common areas within domestic buildings.
This policy change is generally in line with the (Amendment) Ordinance which prohibits smoking in 'indoor public places' except that pleasure grounds in estates were not included. This was mainly due to the lack of well-defined boundaries which made enforcement difficult. The department then decided to extend the smoking restricted areas after it obtained majority tenants' support.
"To ensure that the public are well-informed of the new rule, patrolling staff will be giving out flyers to people smoking within estate boundaries to remind them of the total smoking ban a week before its implementation," Mr Lau said.
"The message will also be conveyed through the mass media, the Housing TV Channel, posters, notices and Estate Newsletter. At the same time, no-smoking signs will be displayed prominently at estate entrances and strategic spots," he said.
(Note) Misdeed B10 under the Marking Scheme: 'Smoking or carrying a lighted cigarette in enclosed common areas including public lifts, lift lobbies, corridors and staircases etc in a domestic building'. Under the proposal, this will be revised as 'Smoking or carrying a lighted cigarette in estate common areas'. Tenants committing this misdeed will be allotted five penalty points without being warned.
Ends/Saturday, February 24, 2007
Issued at HKT 09:00
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