Despite the development of the airport, Tung Chung new town, Discovery Bay and Disneyland, Lantau Island remains a largely unspoiled, predominantly green part of Hong Kong. There is substance to its claim to be the 'lung' of a densely developed and often heavily polluted city.
One way to risk collapsing that lung would be to permit a new road linking the airport and Tung Chung in the north with the country park and rural environment of the south, raising the hopes of those who see its wide open spaces as ripe for development.
The Planning Department rightly ruled out such a move yesterday when the government's revised development plan for Lantau went before the Town Planning Board, despite concerns that this would hinder tourism. It argued that maintaining restricted access to the south would help preserve its rural characteristics.
Major revisions to the concept plan drawn up by the Lantau Development Taskforce include moving a logistics park away from streams of high ecological value at Tai Ho Bay and dropping a golf course altogether.
Northwest Lantau remains an optional site for Container Terminal 10 but otherwise, the changes go some way towards meeting the concerns of green groups and academics about threats to the island's ecology. However, environmentalists remain to be convinced that proposals for green tourism development in the south will not damage it.
The sole existing road link, Tung Chung Road, is open only to public transport and other authorised vehicles. In expanding it to satisfy what it calls rising public demand, the government should not lose sight of the strong reasons for ruling out a new road. As one Town Planning Board member warned, simply allowing more private vehicle access to the south would increase the risk of illegal dumping.
