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Site Admin |
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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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