Lawmakers finally vote to back HK$2b Tseung Kwan O landfill extension

Environment officials scored a bitter victory yesterday when lawmakers finally voted to fund a controversial extension of the landfill at Tseung Kwan O.

The Legislative Council's public works subcommittee voted 16 to 9 to approve the government's request for HK$2 billion in funding after chairman Lo Wai-kwok ended a filibuster attempt by ruling that dozens of motions submitted for debate were irrelevant.

His decision infuriated pan-democrats on the committee, who accused Lo of behaving like a "dictator" and blocking debate.

Legco's Finance Committee will now vote on the proposal.

The government says the extension is necessary because the city's landfill sites are approaching capacity, but NeoDemocrats lawmaker Gary Fan Kwok-wai tabled a series of motions attaching conditions to the funding in an attempt to delay the vote.

Fan, whose Legco constituency includes Tseung Kwan O, wants the government to do more to reduce the generation of waste, and to take action to reduce the environmental effect on the landfill's neighbours.

Lo, of the Business and Professionals Alliance, yesterday allowed 16 motions from Fan to be voted on, but rejected 24 more as breaching committee rules. He allowed Fan to consolidate the 24 rejected motions into four.