Forget tower blocks at Lamma quarry and clean up village areas

In Sydney recently, I found an engaging booklet, Your Guide to Hong Kong's Outlying Islands, published by the Hong Kong Tourism Board. These islands, the booklet notes, are "one of Hong Kong's best kept secrets", where "mountains sweep down to rugged coastlines and glistening seas".

So how can it be that, on Lamma Island, the government proposes to build clusters of tower blocks - a mini Discovery Bay - at the Sok Kwu Wan quarry site? Low-rise tower block suburbia, however well conceived or glossily packaged, simply does not fit Lamma's heritage, setting or potential. Will Lamma and the quarry site be improved, as the Planning Department, Civil Engineering and Development Department and [engineering firm] Arup claim in a plan brought out in March which talks of man-made "green belts", "open space provision", "breezeways", "sight lines" and an "eco hotel"? All this when Lamma has a breathtaking natural setting, enjoyed by many people already each weekend?

The planned 5,000 homes will do little to ameliorate Hong Kong's housing shortage. Such a small community could never have the services critical mass of Discovery Bay, thus begging the question as to whether typical flat dwellers will wish to live there. Near Yung Shue Wan, five years after its completion, an 11-flat condo development remains virtually empty. Sok Kwu Wan villagers want the quarry development as a means to bring essential medical and library services. The government could provide these at a minute fraction of the cost of the development.

Lamma, as the tourist booklet suggests, does not need development at Sok Kwu Wan. What Lamma cries out for, and which would cost infinitely less, is government enhancement of the village areas - such as cleaning up the overall awful blight, and smartening up or painting government facilities. At present the Yung Shue Wan pier and waterfronts, both key tourist "entry points", are disgraceful. Indeed, to open eyes they are third world.

Around the quarry, the area is developing well by itself. The site has a small lake, beautiful trees and woodland. It needs minimal maintenance, not development. Given the crowded southern districts stretching from Chi Fu to Wong Chuk Hang, it could be an accessible camping ground and outdoor education centre - which was the original planning intention.