How safe do we need to be? Very, very, very safe indeed, thinks the Transport Department.
The Lung Fu Shan Environmental Concern Group (LFSECG) has brought to the public's attention the fact that the department is intending to erect 'Victorian railings' along Old Peak Road. Perhaps mindful of public antipathy towards such 'improvements' in relatively natural areas, the Home Affairs Department's Central and Western District Office (C&WDO) would like it known that railings will be put up only where there are 'serious potential pedestrian safety hazards'. But, as the LFSECG points out, the government has confirmed that no accidents on the road have been reported in the past three years. Furthermore, it couldn't locate a single accident report for the 80 or so years since the route was built.
The railings, which by some accounts will cost HK$700,000, would have been erected soon after Lunar New Year if the LFSECG had not insisted on a consultation, claims the group's chairman, Vivian Leung Tai Yuet-kam, who says 400 people have objected to the installation against eight who support it.
As Transport Commissioner Alan Wong Chi-kong told taxi drivers in December, 'the minority should listen to the majority' and the C&WDO says his department is reassessing the matter now it knows what the public wants.
According to Sina.com.hk, the Transport Department has already had to remove new railings on Hatton Road following public protest.
You'd have thought it would have learned its lesson and potentially saved time and money by asking first this time around. Or was it in someone's interest not to?
