I REFER to Kevin Sinclair's article headlined, ''Why Shataukok is on the road to rural ruin'' (South China Morning Post, May 29).
It is not true to say that civil servants are sitting ''passively by'' while watching the Northeast New Territories being ruined by the proliferation of open storage uses on agricultural land. The Planning Department has tried hard to control the problem. Patrol teams carry out regular patrols.
Site inspections are conducted as soon as reports on unauthorised development are received. In the past three months, 40 site inspections have been carried out by the patrol team in the Northeast New Territories. But, as reported in the article, enforcement work does not end with patrolling, and is both laborious and time-consuming.
Detailed investigations have to be carried out to check site boundaries and land status, as well as seek legal advice before enforcement action is taken. It is prudent not to risk bringing the wrong people to court or prosecuting someone without establishing the prima face evidence.
It is a misunderstanding to report that my Senior Town Planner, Mr Andy Tse, had not been to the area for several months. While patrols and site inspections are carried out by survey officers under his supervision, Mr Tse carries out inspection personally, before enforcement notices are issued. He was also personally involved in the helicopter survey held on May 3.
It is the department's aim to bring unplanned development under proper planning control. This is the very objective of the Town Planning (Amendment) Ordinance 1991. But one has to act within the law, which is drawn up by the legislature after balancing private and public interests. According to the ordinance, an enforcement notice (EN) can be issued requiring an unauthorised development to be discontinued or planning permission to be obtained by a specified period (usually three months).
For more urgent cases, that is, development which would constitute health or safety hazards, which adversely affect the environment or would make it uneconomic or impracticable to reinstate the land, a stop notice (SN) can be issued requiring cessation of the development within a short period of time.
