Veteran planner Cookson Smith can't see point of new border town
Intended project in New Territories may become irrelevant amid integration with the mainland, adviser to Leung says
A veteran town planner and member of the chief executive's think tank has questioned the need for a new town proposed at the border.
Peter Cookson Smith - who planned satellite towns including Sha Tin, Tai Po, Sheung Shui and Fanling - said it was not clear what purpose the new town, planned for the northern New Territories, would serve.
"How long might the border be there?" the president of the Institute of Planners and member of the Commission on Strategic Development asked. "Things are really happening in the Pearl River Delta at the moment."
How long might the border might be there? Things are really happening in the Pearl River Delta at the moment
Cookson Smith's questions - raised in an interview with the South China Morning Post - arose from measures announced in Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's policy address to build up the government's land reserve and tackle an acute housing shortage.
The proposals include rezoning government, institute and community sites for residential use and developing a "modern new town" that faces Shenzhen.
Cookson Smith, who was appointed in January to the commission, chaired by Leung, said past efforts indicated that the city lacked direction and strategies for making living space less crowded.
He said he hoped the commission, which will hold its first meeting next month, would "define the way forward for the city in a thoughtful way".
Cookson Smith said he had mixed feelings about Leung's maiden policy address, delivered two months ago.