Residents surprised by latest list of public open spaces

A flat owner at Tuen Mun Town Plaza said she was surprised yesterday when she was informed that the apparently private 6,000-square-metre podium garden at her residential complex was in fact open to the public.

That came after the Development Bureau released the names of a fourth batch of public open spaces created in private developments. The bureau said nine more public parks had been identified in North Point, Sham Shui Po, Tuen Mun, Sha Tin, Kwai Chung and Tung Chung, in housing developments which had been built in the early 1980s.

Six of the nine parks are located on the ground floor of housing projects, while three are on podiums - the one in Tuen Mun Town Plaza phase one, and areas in New Kwai Fong Gardens and New Kwai Hing Gardens in Kwai Tsing district.

The largest public open space identified is Penfold Park in Sha Tin Racecourse, at 80,000 square metres.

A total of 56 open spaces in private developments have been identified in document searches by the bureau since March last year. Pressure for disclosure of the information came after the discovery that the piazza of Times Square in Causeway Bay was public open space.

Ms Yeung, who said she had been living in Tuen Mun Town Plaza for more than 10 years, said she thought the podium garden on the fourth floor was only for residents.

She said a swimming pool was built near the garden a few years ago, reinforcing her impression that the whole area was private.