Letters | Wang Chau yesterday, Fanling today: how policy failure continues to haunt Hong Kong housing quest
- There’s much more to lose than gain with the decision to take back part of the Fanling golf club for a negligible number of public flats. But such shoddy decision-making is all too familiar
- 2,000-odd flats would have little impact on housing needs, but the concreting over of yet more greenery will be a disaster for future generations
An aerial photograph run on your front page clearly shows a substantial brownfield site adjacent to the golf course, so where was the environmental consideration in making this decision?
Short-sighted populist decisions will come back to haunt. A meagre 2,000 or so flats would have little impact on meeting our housing need, but the concreting over of yet more greenery in the New Territories will be a disaster for future generations and, in this case, the sporting community.
The government has nothing to be proud of in taking this action. Sport is an essential component of the social and economic fabric of any city, and this decision just takes Hong Kong another rung down the ladder as a place to live, hurts its reputation abroad and makes nonsense of its claim to be a “world city”.
The consultation by the Task Force on Land Supply served as an excuse for government to do nothing for another year, was not necessary, and brought out the divisiveness currently existing in society because the government has not looked after its people properly.
Allan Hay, Tai Po