CONTROLS on development should be extended to all islands to stop quarrying or reclamation, a green group said yesterday. The call followed the revelation that part of 14 proposed country park sites or extensions have been earmarked as potential quarries to provide landfill for reclamation. The World Wide Fund for Nature has called on the Town Planning Board to extend development plans across the territory, according to assistant conservation officer Alex Yau Shuk-kau. 'Most islands are not covered by any development plan, so basically the Government or private developers can do anything,' Ms Yau said. Environmental impact assessments failed to take cumulative effects into account. The green group is considering launching a 'Save the Islands' campaign. In March, the Government said a Lantau North Country Park extension - planned in 1993 - was a 'priority', but the Civil Engineering Department had earmarked potential quarry sites there in early 1994. Legislator Christine Loh Kung-wai demanded a full explanation yesterday, saying the Government appeared to consider green areas 'potential fillbanks'. On Tuesday, a government spokesman said no decision had been taken on the 70 possible 'borrow' sites. Yesterday, the Civil Engineering Department said eight sites which did not conflict with country park plans had been shortlisted. Assistant Agriculture and Fisheries director Frank Lau Sau-ping said he was unaware of any conflict, but proposals would be discussed at talks between departments. Ms Yau said the secrecy was frustrating: 'We know so little, we don't have much information. [We get] their normal bureaucratic response,' she said. Her group had discovered 'very indirectly' that Sunshine Island, suggested as a removal haven for the endangered thumbnail-size Romer's Tree Frog from Chek Lap Kok, was a potential blast site, she said. 'The draft of the Territory Development Strategy says it will be mainly conservation-related,' said Ms Yau. 'We asked for an assurance that it would not become a borrow area [for landfill] but we had no reply.'
