Giant Hong Kong columbarium plan blocked amid government opposition and local protests

Friday’s decision also means a dismissal of the private sector’s ambition to modernise the city’s burial facilities and to address the serious shortage of niches for people to store urns containing the ashes of their loved ones, amid a fast-greying population.

In opposing the scheme, the Planning Department said the conversion would exacerbate the short supply of industrial space in the area, which has a current vacancy rate of 0.8 per cent.

But applicant Kerry Warehouse – a subsidiary of Kerry Logistics Network – argued the plan would only sacrifice 0.2 per cent of the city’s total industrial gross floor area, while the 82,000 niche spaces created would reduce shortage of by one-fifth.

“We are not just taking the chance to remove a dangerous goods warehouse from the neighbourhood, but to also build a social facility to address dire public needs,” Kerry managing director William Ma Wing-kai said.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department had earlier predicted a shortfall of 400,000 niches by 2023. There are now about 50,000 deaths in Hong Kong each year.