Why Fanling golf course is an easy target for Hong Kong planners
- Tackling brownfield sites, random village expansion, squatters and the like is more difficult, because nobody is prepared to take on the Heung Yee Kuk.
I am not surprised by the government’s decision to retake and develop part of the Fanling golf course (“Put blocks of flats on beautiful golf course? Only in Hong Kong”, February 22). It is a cowardly act against an easy target, fitting of our government and the civil servants who support it. The government knows that the Hong Kong Golf Club’s members are generally well-educated, understand the needs of society at large and will, in the long run, accede to public pressure, despite the proposal being stupid in the extreme.
However, the more important task of reining in the despoliation of the New Territories by brownfield sites, random village expansion, squatters and the like will not happen, because nobody is prepared to take on the Heung Yee Kuk. It is too difficult a task. In fact, far easier to prevent Eddie Chu Hoi-dick from standing for election as a village representative, just in case he might raise uncomfortable issues that someone in Lands Department might have to deal with.
John Dainton, Wong Chuk Hang