Editorial | Tree management must be effective
- The areas of improvement identified by a task force show inspection work has not been carried out as seriously as it should. More accidents and reviews should not be needed to prompt officials to do their job properly
Thanks to the “not in my backyard” mindset among some civil servants, it is not uncommon to see issues of public concern being passed around or falling through the cracks of departments. But even when something is clearly in one’s turf, it may still go woefully wrong. The management of trees in Hong Kong is a case in point.
Yet another bureaucracy overhaul has been made by the government to ensure the relevant departments will take their responsibilities seriously. The sorry state of affairs says something about the deep-rooted culture across officialdom.
The review, which came after a series of mishaps that saw a man killed by a falling tree last year, concluded that the departments “had performed well according to the guidelines”.
But it also identified “room for improvement” in relation to issues such as the lack of follow-up on inspection results and inconsistencies between observations and risk ratings. The rhetoric is typical of the government and does little to help people judge whether the existing tree management regime has been working well.
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Tree crashes onto school bus in Hong Kong, passengers narrowly escape serious injury
Among the 10 recommendations by the Development Bureau’s task force is to make tree management performance a factor in appraising the work of nine department heads with a tree portfolio.
