Court told views should be sought before more reclamation
The public should be allowed to have a say on the Central reclamation project before any more of the harbour is filled in, a court heard yesterday.
Counsel representing the Society for the Protection of the Harbour, Mok Yeuk-chi, said the public must have a chance to express its views on whether legal tests laid down by the Court of Final Appeal should be applied in any proposal to reclaim the harbour.
The latest judicial review in the Court of First Instance is focusing on the 18-hectare Central Reclamation Phase III project.
The society wants the court to force the Executive Council to send the plans back to the Town Planning Board to comply with new legal tests laid down by the Court of Final Appeal in January. That court ruling established the principle of 'over-riding public need' for all harbour reclamation projects.
Although the test case involved the draft Wan Chai North zoning plan, the Central plan and all other reclamation works are also affected. The Wan Chai and Central plans are part of the Central-Wan Chai bypass project.
The court was yesterday told that Exco had made the decision not to send the plans back to the Town Planning Board on December 2, last year. Their decision was based on a report by the Territory Development Department.