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1. Tamar plan flaws outlined

1. Tamar plan flaws outlined
Leslie Kwoh, The Standard 10 April 2006

Braving fickle skies and droves of Sunday shoppers, a handful of determined lawmakers took to the bustling streets of Mong Kok to enlist the public's support in their quest to halt the Tamar development project.

The Democratic Party's Lee Wing- tat, the Civic Party's Alan Leong and independent lawmaker Kwok Ka-ki jointly hosted an open-air forum to outline the main issues of the debate over the government's proposal to build its headquarters at the waterfront site.

The forum took place just two days after the Legislative Council's Finance Committee approved funding for a HK$115,000 administrative post to oversee implementation of the project.

Lee, whose party voted in support of the post, said the government still had to answer a number of issues before it could win the party's approval for the project - including concerns about the density of the buildings, the amount of open space, pedestrian accessibility to the harbor, and preserving the existing headquarters as a historical site.

"We supported the post, but it does not mean we'll support giving the government HK$4 billion to HK$5 billion in June," he said. "We hope by then they will have more detailed answers to the points we have brought up."

He called on the government to initiate an "active dialogue" with the public, saying he felt administrative officials and concern groups had reached an "impasse" in their discussions as "neither side appears to be listening."

Leong said: "People want to know that 30 or 50 years down the road, the next generation will be enjoying open public areas, not walking in a perpetual marketplace."

After explaining the Civic Party opposed the project because the government has failed to answer inquiries concerning its urgency and scale, Leong stood up and fired a barrage of questions at the gathering crowd.

"Does that piece of land belong to us? Don't you want to know who will be moving into it? Do you want to be able to walk to the waterfront? Are you satisfied with the information the government has given us thus far? Have you voiced your opinion yet?" Leong said.

"If you have opinions, express them in the next two months. Make some noise."

Kwok held up a poster illustrating the site, saying the government's plans to construct buildings between 130 meters and 160m tall will "create a wall" between Admiralty and the harbor.

"The government thinks it is compromising because it originally proposed 180m," he said. "But their approach is unclear, they have furnished us with very little information."

Bystanders said they felt the forum was "informative" and "compelling." Manager Yu Yaofeng, 28, said: "I had heard about Tamar before, but I didn't know a great deal about the issues."