Proposed changes to heritage laws will not override development, government officials hinted yesterday.
Speaking at Legco's home affairs panel, Esther Leung Yuet-yin, deputy secretary for home affairs, said: '[Department] projects are in different stages of development. It is difficult to freeze them.
'We will consult the public on how the existing heritage law should be amended. Whether it will be overriding, we will have to discuss it. Society may not have a consensus.'
She said the public would be consulted on heritage conservation in the second half of this year.
Frontier legislator Emily Lau Wai-hing said the government should freeze all development projects that involve heritage sites after hearing 15 pressure groups' views. The groups disputed the rationale to sell the Hollywood Road married police quarters for a high-rise residential development.
Another disputed project centres on the Urban Renewal Authority's plan to redevelop Nga Tsin Wai in Wong Tai Sin, a village that is at least 600 years old. Property giant Cheung Kong (Holdings) owns about 80 per cent of the property rights of the historic village.