Parents and other residents of Pok Fu Lam will protest today against the relocation of a barge-loading site that will handle soil and rock excavated for construction of the MTR's South Island Line. The work will mean up to 300 dumper trucks a day plying the area's roads.
The MTR Corporation plans to move the loading site from Kellett Bay, near the Wah Kwai Estate, to Telegraph Bay, near Cyberport and several luxury residential estates including Residence Bel-Air and Baguio Villa. The barging point will handle part of the 1.5 million cubic metres of soil and rock.
About 100 residents will gather at the barging point today demanding it be moved elsewhere.
They say the new point is farther away from the construction site than the original location, which means the trucks will have to travel farther.
Ronald Chan Ngok-pang, the area's district councillor, said: 'The trucks will have to travel two kilometres farther every day to the construction site, and that creates more pollution and safety issues.' He will lead two more protests outside the Legislative Council next week.
The parent-teacher association of the Independent Schools Foundation Academy - one of four private schools in the neighbourhood - said a sudden increase in the number of trucks would pose a danger to pupils who walk, jog or cycle along the roads. 'Our youngest pupil is just five years old,' Edna Wong of the association said. 'The roads are narrow and windy, and the trucks always move at high speed.'
David Kidd, the chairman of the board of Kellett School, a British international school, said it was strongly opposed to the proposal.