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Joined: Tue Jul 23, 2002 10:07 am
Posts: 734
Location: Under Mr. 3
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Dear Friends of Lamma,
The campaign to stop the Yung Shue Wan harbour reclamation
is moving forward. A BIG thank you to everyone who has
written in to voice their objection to the project! Because
of your efforts, there has been a rapidly growing awareness
of the issues involved with the plan.
Campaign Update
The Save Lamma Campaign has recently been in communication
with several government departments and key legislators. We
have received significant support from them and we are
optimistic about making major breakthroughs.
On July 25th, we had an important joint meeting with Anthony
Kwan, Timothy Lui and Kitty Lam of the Planning Department
(PD) and H.D. Wong of the Civil Engineering Department (CED).
The PD is in charge of the overall facilitation and
implementation of the plan in question, while the CED is
responsible for the design of the reclamation scheme. We
raised our objections to the plan on behalf of the over 1200
Lamma residents and tourists and the almost 40 Lamma
businesses that have signed surveys and petitions opposing
the plan.
The PD informed us that they believe that they have already
gone through a sufficient community consultation process,
which did not indicate any opposition to the plan. Needless
to say this raises very significant questions about the
PD's approach to consultation. The department did, however,
acknowledge receiving about 100 written complaints in
recent months (letters are very effective - please continue
to write!). In response, they have scaled back some of the
original project heading towards the ferry pier, and have
expressed openness to considering alternative plans.
We also had a meeting with the Tourism Board on the 18th of
July. Although The Board cannot directly influence PD
projects, it can submit questions and suggestions to the
Tourism Commission, which has a greater supervisory role.
At the meeting, Board representatives were sympathetic to our
concerns and agreed to alert the Tourism Commission of the
opposition. This support is significant, as enhancing tourism
value is one of the main justifications of the current plan.
Legco member Lee Cheuk-Yan has put his full support behind
the campaign and is currently making efforts to have the
government thoroughly re-examine the project. We are also in
contact with other legislators including Choy So Yuk, Cyd Ho
and Law Chi-kwong who have expressed interest in the
reclamation plan, and we are optimistic in getting further
support from them.
Upcoming Efforts
The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the reclamation
is due to be released during the next two months. We are
pushing to have the EIA process suspended before this time, and
for the whole project to be fundamentally re-examined. We are
also currently working on an alternative "minimum option" in
order to constructively contribute to the rethinking of the
project.
The media is beginning to pick up on the campaign. There have
been articles and letters to the editor published in the SCMP,
Apple Daily, and Asian Wall Street Journal. HK Magazine is
currently writing a substantial article, and RTHK and TVB are
in the midst of producing segments on the reclamation controversy.
We encourage you to send us any relevant information and useful
suggestions, and we would appreciate any input about what you
would like to see in an alternative plan. For those who are not
yet fully familiar with the reclamation and the campaign, please
visit http://www.savelamma.org.
Thanks again for your support,
The Save Lamma Campaign.
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