Fairview Park truck ban hearing brought forward
Legal proceedings to clarify the rights of use of Fairview Park Boulevard will be brought forward to August from October after a joint request by the government and the developer of Fairview Park Estate.
This came after 400 residents of the Yuen Long private estate took to the streets on Sunday, urging the government to bar vehicles more than 7 metres long from the boulevard, where a 12-year-old boy on his way to school was knocked from his bicycle and killed by a truck in January.
Commissioner of Transport Alan Wong Chi-kong said after meeting residents' representatives yesterday that the High Court had approved their request to speed up the case. The developer claims the government broke a promise to keep container trucks off the road.
'We understand the concerns of the residents, and we also hope the problem can be addressed as soon as possible,' Mr Wong said. In the meantime the authorities were encouraging container trucks to use Kam Pok Road as an alternative route to the boulevard.
The government estimates the road, completed in 2005 but fully opened only after the boy's death, is being used by 30 to 40 per cent of the heavy goods vehicles passing through the area on the way to and from container storage parks.
'We know this is far from the residents' expectation,' Mr Wong said. 'But we will keep communicating with them and seek further improvement before the legal proceedings start.'
Yuen Long district councillor Yau Tai-tai, who represents the residents, refused to comment on yesterday's meeting.
Fairview Park management this week revealed copies of a letter received from the government nine years ago stating that most vehicles over 7 metres long would be barred from using the boulevard.
In a notice attached to the letter, the management company said the developer urged the operators of container yards who are claiming right of way over the boulevard to produce documentary evidence.
'I want the media and the public to know what the government promised to do,' general manager Albert Lam Kwok-fai said.
On Monday a school bus struck and injured a 15-year-old boy on his bicycle while turning into the estate from the boulevard.
