Following is a question by the Hon Lee Wing-tat and a written reply by the Secretary for Development, Mrs Carrie Lam, in the Legislative Council today (March 18):
Question:
Under the Lands Resumption Ordinance (Cap. 124), whenever the Chief Executive in Council (the Authority) decides that the resumption of any land is required for a public purpose, the Chief Executive may order the resumption thereof. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether the Authority made any decision under the aforesaid provision in the past 10 years to resume for a public purpose any private land which is within the precincts of country parks, designated special areas or marine parks, or on the list of priority sites identified for enhanced conservation by the Government, or of natural conservation value; if it had, of the details of each case;
(b) of the details of each case of resumption of land in those categories in (a) which the Lands Department had considered proposing to the Authority in the past 10 years, including the factors considered in eventually putting forward the proposal or otherwise; and
(c) whether it had uncovered in the past five years any case of people causing damage to a piece of land, which was not included in any outline zoning plan or development permission area plan but was of natural conservation value (e.g. long abandoned agricultural land), as a means to urge the Authority to resume the land under the aforesaid provision; if it had, of the details of each case; if not, what measures the Government will take to prevent such a situation?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the three-part question is as follows:
(a) and (b) On the basis of a search of the available records by the Lands Department, in the past ten years, private land within conservation area was resumed for a public purpose under the Lands Resumption Ordinance in the following cases:
(i) it was decided on 10 April 2001 to resume the private agricultural land within the conservation area in Mai Po of Yuen Long for implementing village flood protection works by government departments concerned. The agricultural land resumed was about 9 873 square metres;
(ii) it was decided on 30 April 2002 to resume the private agricultural land within the conservation area in San Tin of Yuen Long for implementing the Main Drainage Channels and Poldered Village Protection Schemes by government departments concerned. The agricultural land resumed was about 20 560 square metres; and
(iii) it was decided on 21 October 2008 to resume the private agricultural land within the conservation area in Shuen Wan of Tai Po for implementing the drainage improvement works in Shuen Wan by the Drainage Services Department. The agricultural land resumed was about 4 900 square metres.
(c) In the past five years, the Lands Department, the Planning Department, the Environmental Protection Department and the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department have not detected any case of people causing damage to private land in the aforesaid areas as a means to urge the Authority to resume their land. Should the Lands Department discover any breaches of lease conditions in private land within the aforesaid areas, the Lands Department would take appropriate action, including lease enforcement action in conjunction with the relevant departments.
Ends/Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Issued at HKT 14:31
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