Bulldozing part of Fanling golf course ‘a pity’ and future housing development should have more open space, Executive Council convenor says
- Bernard Chan tells the Post in Beijing that building on golf course will not make much of a dent in Hong Kong’s housing problem
- A preliminary study estimated 4,600 flats could be built on targeted portion of land
The convenor of the Hong Kong chief executive’s cabinet said on Tuesday it was a pity to bulldoze part of an historic golf course to build homes and suggested keeping more open space at the future housing site.
The most controversial option on the list was the redevelopment of one-fifth of the 172-hectare Fanling golf course, which mainly serves 2,600 club members, many of them from the city’s political and business elite.
“I am not a member of the golf club but my company holds a corporate membership,” Chan, convenor of the Executive Council, which advises Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, said in an interview on the sidelines of National People’s Congress meetings in Beijing.
“I was there to endorse the decision – all along I have supported taking back the course, but how to use it is another thing,” he said.
Chan had proposed turning it into a public park rather than building homes. Stressing the site was “very beautiful”, he said it was still a pity to him that part of it would be bulldozed in 2024.
But he endorsed the task force’s recommendations because he understood they had to face public pressure and it would be difficult for the government to explain if it had cherry-picked recommendations of the report.
Could the rest of Fanling Golf Course also face redevelopment beyond 2027?
“Now it is set to be taken back. But could we allow more space in construction and designs in the future?” he said.
When asked whether such a measure would invite a backlash because of the many people living in poor conditions awaiting public housing, he replied it was a problem only large-scale reclamation could solve.
He added this was why last year he said it was “so stupid” for the government’s critics to think that taking over the golf course could help solve Hong Kong’s housing problem.
A preliminary study suggested at least 4,600 flats could be built on the targeted part of the course. The development minister earlier said a new survey would look into increasing development density to provide more affordable housing.
However, the government’s decision has drawn criticism from the business sector of being populist while the pan-democrats insisted the government should have gone a step further by seizing the entire golf course.
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“The choice is between being slammed as collusion or populist. There is no middle way,” Chan said, adding he believed the decision was a rather balanced one as the golf club has no difficulties in continuing to operate using the rest of the course.
Back in Beijing, Vice-Premier Han Zheng on Monday met a Hong Kong delegation to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the nation’s top political advisory body, and praised the Hong Kong government for banning the pro-independence Hong Kong National Party.
Chan, who is among the 36-member NPC delegation, is expected to meet Han on Wednesday.
Asked whether Han’s praise meant that enacting national security legislation was no longer an urgent issue for Hong Kong, Chan said: “The pressure to enact the Article 23 legislation is always here, while it remains to be done.”
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But with district and Legco elections coming up in the next 18 months, he believed it was not good timing to launch any consultation on national security legislation.
Under Article 23 of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, Hong Kong must enact its own national security legislation. The government was forced to shelve its Article 23 bill in 2003 after half a million people took to the streets to oppose it, fearing civil liberties would be compromised.
Additional reporting by Tony Cheung
