Old Tai Po Police Station in line for eco-friendly facelift

The Old Tai Po Police Station, a grade-one-listed heritage site, is in line for a facelift after Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, a Tai Po-based organisation promoting nature conservation, won the right to carry out renovation and preservation work on the buildings and their grounds.

The plan, part of the second round of a revitalisation scheme being carried out by the Development Bureau, would see precious trees and rare birds protected and the site's buildings renovated with a grant of HK$40.95 million.

Kadoorie plans to turn the compound into a 'green hub for sustainable living', featuring a healthy-eating canteen hosting cookery classes, short residential courses on horticulture and biodiversity conservation, and a courtyard.

'It's not just the buildings we are going to conserve but also the nature around them,' said Idy Wong Lai-yin, head of the sustainable living and agriculture department at Kadoorie, while on a site visit with the media yesterday.

Wong said one of the first tasks would be to take care of three listed trees - a Chinese banyan and a camphor tree within the site and a lemon-scented gum tree next to the entrance - as well as 36 others on the site.

'Over time climbers [weeds] have grown over some of the trees making them sick or overloaded. We will get specialists to come to the rescue, conserving as many as possible,' she said.

Wong added that egrets roosting on the wooded slope north of the site, which account for about 7 per cent of the egret nests recorded in Hong Kong in 2008, would be cared for.