Time bomb ticking in New Territories over new town development plan

The proposed development of new towns in the northeastern New Territories has set the government on course for another round of large-scale confrontations, potentially involving thousands of demonstrators.

That prospect became evident in Sheung Shui on Saturday, when Development Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po's consultation forum on the plan drew 6,000 protesters, many of whom were vehemently opposed to the plan, leading to scuffles with those who were in favour.

Unlike the movement that successfully challenged the government's plans to introduce a mandatory national education subject, opponents of the administration on this issue include a range of conflicting interests, from landlords and developers to villagers, tenants and officials.

Data available in the public domain, including developers' annual reports, town-planning submissions and villagers' records, suggests private developers hold at least 70 hectares of the 168 hectares of residential land planned for new towns in Kwu Tung North, Fanling North, Ping Che and Ta Kwu Ling.

At 40 per cent of the residential land planned in the new towns, the figure points to the considerable influence over the project wielded by its five known private developers - Henderson Land, Sun Hung Kai Properties, New World Development, Cheung Kong (Holdings) and Henry Fok's family. Then there is Lin Jianchun , a mainlander suspected of being a Hong Kong developer's agent.

The plans may have encountered less opposition from New Territories residents if the government had not changed its development approach, in the latest round of consultation, from building the new towns in consultation with them to taking away their land.