'On the sea side it promises to be a sloping stone construction ending in a sandy bank.'

I fail to see how we can have a sandy bank in what will essentially be several feet of water.

Am I missing something?

Lamma waterfront plan back on the table
Chris Ip Apr 26, 2011

It's a case of deja-vu for those who call laid-back Lamma Island home. The waterfront of Yung Shue Wan, home to seafood restaurants, will be filled in with about four square kilometres of concrete under a government plan.
The HK$55 million project will provide a new pedestrian path and ambulance road stretching about 400 metres right around the bay.

That means reclaiming the entire seafront of the town, described on the Tourism Board's website as having a "European ambience".

If the plan sounds familiar, that's because nearly a decade ago the government tried to launch a similar project until residents, local businesses and environmental groups pressured it to stop. Now those same people say the government is trying to slip the plan back on the table without consulting the community.

Alex Ng Tsz-lum, an owner of the family-run Lamma Seaview Man Fung Restaurant, heard about the plan from another resident.

That was two months after the Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD) published details of the project online.

"It's so surprising," he said. "If this was necessary they would have done it a long time ago, right? Why do they have to do it again after 10 years?"

Ng signed a petition organised by a local concern group in 2002 and believed that after residents rejected the plan then, it would not return.

Yet Ng's biggest surprise was that the plan sketches a new path running directly over nearly the entire seating area of his restaurant - a fact he learned only when he was approached by the Post and shown a copy of the official plans. He had not been informed by the government. "I never heard about it. They never came and consulted the local people," he said.

Ron Yiu Kin-yiu, owner of the Green Cottage cafe, whose verandah overlooks the sea, had also heard nothing from officials. He said the natural coastline was part of Lamma's peaceful appeal and without it residents would move away.

For the two years that the work would take to complete, starting from 2014 according to the CEDD, tourists would not visit, and they might not return, he said. He and Ng said about half their customers were visitors, many of them regulars.

Official guidelines require engineering projects to be announced in the press to inform residents. According to residents concern group Living Lamma, this plan was announced in The Standard - which is not distributed on Lamma Island. And the main official community notice board on Yung Shue Wan Main Street carried no announcement.

"These people don't know Lamma and don't talk to people who do know Lamma," Laura Ruggeri, chairwoman of Living Lamma and a 14-year resident of the island, said. "It is shocking that any government department could be so insensitive to the character of the island."

The senior CEDD engineer on the project, Eric Leung, said planning was still at an early stage and would soon undergo an environmental impact assessment. He said the plan had already been cut back from the HK$60 million project covering 10 square kilometres originally proposed in 2002.

"At that time we received quite a lot of objections and the planning department reduced the scale of the reclamation," he said.

Lamma district councillor Yu Lai-fan confirmed that there had been no public consultation on the new plan. The last meetings took place in 2003 and were only to do with the previous plan, which was subsequently rejected. However, Yu did support the proposal, she said.

"Especially in the holidays, the main street is squeezed and vehicles even cannot pass by," she said. "An ambulance could take at least five to 10 minutes to go from the clinic to the pier. With emergency vehicle access, it would take no more than 30 seconds."

Ruggeri said Living Lamma was not opposed to development on the island, but there were alternative ways to build an ambulance path without wrecking the shore.

Ng said his business would suffer if the plan went ahead. His restaurant, where customers sit just a metre or two from the shoreline, would not be the same if it overlooked 30 metres of concrete instead.

"The name of our restaurant is Lamma Seaview. If they do that, we are not Lamma Seaview anymore," he said. "We'd have to change the name of the restaurant, right? It wouldn't make sense any more."

Especially in the holidays, the main street is squeezed and vehicles even cannot pass by," she said. "An ambulance could take at least five to 10 minutes to go from the clinic to the pier. With emergency vehicle access, it would take no more than 30 seconds.

Building an ambulance road on Lamma is not going to save lives
Apr 28, 2011

It was with disgust that I learned about the latest government plan for the destruction of our coastline. This time it is Yung Shue Wan that is the victim ("Lamma waterfront plan back on the table", April 26).
This is a beautiful laid-back village, which according to the government is now in need of its own expressway.

The main justification is that, with the new road, ambulances will be able to make faster trips to the ferry on busy days.

There are several problems with this justification. Firstly, the number of ambulance rides, which will not be many considering the size of the population. Also, there is the rush factor. It is not likely that there are boats waiting all the time to pick up patients. And if they are not waiting at the pier, they have to come from Hong Kong and that takes longer than an ambulance driving along Yung Shue Wan Main Street on a busy Sunday afternoon.

If a patient really needs to be rushed to a bigger hospital a helicopter is the way to go, not a ferry. Even with the proposed new road, transport by ferry including transport to and from the ferry piers would easily take an hour.

Shaving five minutes off this trip is not going to save lives. Patients who are not emergency cases can be transferred to another hospital via the regular ferry service.

I have visited Lamma many times, it is still one of my favourite destinations in Hong Kong.

I agree that it is very crowded at weekends, but that is part of its charm, as is the seaside dining.

I really hope that, in years to come, I can continue to enjoy those visits without being disturbed by construction work and later by the new road that will probably be mainly used as a racetrack by village vehicles.

If the government has so many problems getting rid of its money, I am sure it can come up with more constructive ideas, even for Lamma.

Maybe it could consider extending the MTR's South Island Line to have a Lamma Island stop.

Wouter van Marle, Tai Po

Reclamation good for island
Fri, 29 Apr 2011

Overzealous environmentalists may not always act to the benefit of Lamma Island.

Among their main concerns are that the proposed reclamation project, with a new beach and an access road, will put an end to the stream of tourists and that waterfront restaurants will be too far away from the water.

At the moment, however, what tourists see when they get off the ferry is a graffiti-covered seawall, a run-off ditch with dirty water and a tiny sand strip full of rubbish.

What conservative Lamma residents miss is that a nice beach and the facelift for the bay might increase the flow of tourists.

Meanwhile, seaview restaurants and inns near Hung Shing Yeh, the island's best public beach, are thriving even though they are separated from the waterfront by an access road and the large beach. This proves that not every development is necessarily an evil for the island.

Anton Ivanov, Lamma

And despite all the talk of "dog shit beach" and such, I hopped down on YSW beach to check it out...

It isn't terrible. No rotting carcasses being picked over by mangy hyenas.

More seashells than plastic. The sand is mostly white even.

You could put up some deckchairs at low tide and sell banana daquiris to drink as you watch the sun set into the smog.

I may post some photos later.

Here are my own recent photos all taken at low tide from the "white sand beach" in YSW Harbour. Good luck with your "deckchairs at low tide and banana daiquiris".

the ferry was full.

Daiquiris on the beach would make a good photo opp.
I might take you up on that offer of a first round....