Land officers and contract workers failed to remove more illegal structures from a rural leader's park and zoo in Yuen Long yesterday as dozens of villagers guarded the entrance and hurled insults at them.
It was the second time villagers had put up opposition to the Lands Department's move to deal with illicit structures in the Tai Tong Lychee Valley - part of which is illegally on government land. On April 30, dozens of villagers formed a line at the entrance but dispersed without any confrontation, allowing lands officers to enter.
It is understood that officers have since entered several more times without facing any resistance.
'You give them an inch and they want a foot. They're too much of a bully,' said Leung Fuk-yuen, one of two park owners and chairman of the Shap Pat Heung Rural Committee.
Leung's 12,000-square-metre park, which encroaches into Tai Lam Country Park, has occupied 5,000 square metres of government land illegally for 18 years. The department acted after the Audit Commission criticised it last month over inaction.
Since then, Leung and the department have removed a suspension bridge, a toilet, a pavilion, some animal shelters and stone chairs within the country park.