New plan for Tuen Mun landfill extension fails to satisfy councillors
Environment minister cuts area for Tuen Mun landfill extension by 10 per cent, but local politicians insist on a 75 per cent reduction
The environment minister has been told to come up with a better offer if he wants to stand a chance of winning over local politicians resisting a landfill extension plan in Tuen Mun.
Secretary for the Environment Wong Kam-sing also suggests undertaking the project in phases. The concessions were made after half of Tuen Mun district councillors walked out of an April meeting with the minister in opposition to the expansion.
But the mere 10 per cent reduction, unveiled yesterday, still failed to appease councillors as it was far smaller than the 75 per cent they had asked for.
"We have all been saying we can accept only a 50-hectare extension," councillor Ho Hang-mui, of the Democratic Party, told Wong and other officials at a special meeting.
Councillors want compensation for affected residents, road improvements and a system to reduce household waste. They also argue the district already has more than its fair share of objectionable facilities, including a columbarium, on top of bearing the bulk of the city's waste.
Besides the Tuen Mun plan, Wong is also preparing to retable as early as next month multibillion-dollar waste infrastructure plans at the Legislative Council that recommend two other landfill extensions and a waste incinerator. He has spoken of the urgency to expand the city's waste infrastructure. The government plans were left stuck in a queue for funding requests amid filibustering at Legco's Finance Committee before the summer break.
Yesterday's meeting took place after district council chairman Lau Wong-fat surrendered his chairmanship to his deputy to avoid any conflicts of interest. Lau said his companies held "substantial" land within the proposed extension area.
Wong said scaling down the size would make the extension similar to proposed expansions at the other two tips, in Ta Kwu Ling and Tseung Kwan O. He pledged to develop the project in two phases, with the second phase a "reserve", but did not specify under what conditions it would not be used.
Chan Wan-sang, of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said while he understood the need for the landfills, he could not bring himself to accept it.
"We would be spat on by our voters if we said yes to it," Chan said. "But if we said no, we would bear the sin of obstructing the city's development."
Democrat Josephine Chan Shue-ying criticised Wong's failure to provide a timetable on when the Tuen Mun landfill would be closed for good.
