Ho Sheung Heung, located in a rural part of Sheung Shui, has become the focus of another dispute over land use, even as it battles another illegal dumping case.
A vacant village school has been converted into a store selling food to visitors, and the new business has proved a popular stop on organised tours to the area. The problem is that the store was built without prior planning permission.
It is the fourth land-use dispute at the village since last July. None of the disputes have been fully settled. And the disputes have come amid a controversial land-rezoning proposal by the government last year to turn over the wider Ho Sheung Heung area for nature preservation and low-density housing development.
The store, which is about 100 square metres, occupies one of the three single-storey structures at the Ho Kai School compound. The school was built in the mid-1990s but was never occupied because of a lack of students.
Operated under the brand Yummy House, the outlet offers food products including soy sauce, priced at HK$22 and recommended by Hugo Leung Man-to, television-food-show host and critic.
While the school site is owned by a member of the dominant Hau clan, Hau Kam-yuen, the outlet is run by Yummy House International, which has two directors named Shea King-nam and Shea King-fung. They could not be contacted yesterday.