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these handy "jump links" to quickly access the news item
you're
looking for. 1.
Draft Wong Nai Chung Outline Zoning Plan approved 2.
Town Planning (Amendment) Bill 2003 to be introduced
into LegCo 3.
Green group tries to block prison on Hei Ling Chau
4.
China Flu: Make the name fit the disease
1. Draft Wong Nai Chung Outline Zoning Plan approved
Hong
Kong Government, 9 May 2003 The
Chief Executive in Council has approved the draft Wong Nai Chung Outline Zoning
Plan (OZP). "The
approved OZP is to establish a statutory land use framework to guide development
and redevelopment in the Wong Nai Chung area," a spokesman for the Town Planning
Board said today (May 9). The
Planning Scheme Area of the OZP, covering an area of about 138 hectares, is bounded
by Leighton Road in the north, Hong Kong Stadium and Tai Hang Road in the east,
Wong Nai Chung Gap Road in the south, and Stubbs Road in the west. Existing
high-density residential developments along Leighton Road, Wong Nai Chung Road
and Sing Woo Road, covering about 5.7ha, are zoned Residential (Group A). Low-to-medium
density developments at the Leighton Hill, along Link Road and Ventris Road and
south of the race course along Shan Kwong Road, are zoned Residential (Group B)
with an area of about 15.3ha. Low-to-medium
density developments, covering about 17.4ha in the southern part of the Area along
Blue Pool Road, Briar Avenue, Tai Hang Road and Shan Kwong Road as well as the
eastern part of the Area along Broadwood Road are zoned Residential (Group C).
Developments in this zone are subject to plot ratio, site coverage and building
height restrictions to preserve public views and maintain the existing character
and amenities, and to ensure that developments will be commensurate with the limited
road capacities. About
0.9ha covering two sites at Stubbs Road and the junction of Leighton Road and
Hysan Avenue are zoned Commercial/Residential, and an area of about 0.3ha located
to the south of Queen's Road East is zoned Commercial. To
serve the local and district needs, 15ha is zoned Government, Institution or Community
and 9.3ha is zoned Open Space. About
35.5ha are zoned Other Specified Uses, which include the race course, the sports
and recreation clubs to its north, the South China Athletic Association Stadium,
the Jockey Club Stables, private sports/recreation clubs and a public open space
at the southern end of Shan Kwong Road, the petrol filling station at Sing Woo
Road and the cemeteries to the west of Wong Nai Chung Road and at Shan Kwong Road.
The hill slopes
along Stubbs Road on the southwestern periphery of the Area as well as those along
Broadwood Road and Tai Hang Road on the eastern periphery, taking up about 20.6ha,
are zoned Green Belt so as to conserve the natural environment and safeguard it
from encroachment by urban-type developments and provide additional outlets for
passive recreational uses. The
approved Wong Nai Chung OZP No. S/H7/11 is available for public inspection during
office hours at: *
Secretariat of the Town Planning Board, 15th Floor, North Point Government Offices,
333 Java Road, North Point; *
Hong Kong District Planning Office, 14th Floor, North Point Government Offices;
and * Wan Chai
District Office, Ground Floor, 2 O'Brien Road, Wan Chai. Copies
of the approved OZP are available for sale at the Map Publications Centres in
Yau Ma Tei and North Point. An electronic version can be viewed on the Town Planning
Board's website (www.info.gov.hk/tpb).
2. Town Planning (Amendment) Bill 2003 to be introduced into LegCo
Hong
Kong Government, 9 May 2003 The
Chief Executive in Council has ordered that the Town Planning (Amendment) Bill
2003 (the Amendment Bill) be introduced into the Legislative Council (LegCo) on
May 21, 2003. The
Amendment Bill, which was published in the Government Gazette today (May 9), aims
at streamlining and expediting the town planning process, enhancing the transparency
of the planning system and strengthening enforcement control against unauthorized
developments in the rural areas. "We
will speed up the process for making statutory plans by standardizing the exhibition
period of new and amendment plans to one month for the public to submit representations,
and by shortening the period for considering representations from the current
nine months to six months," a spokesman for the Housing, Planning and Lands
Bureau said. "To
ensure sufficient time for the public to respond to the proposals in the plan,
we will allow another four weeks upon expiry of the plan exhibition period for
the representers to submit further information in support of their representations."
As for streamlining
the planning approval process, the Amendment Bill includes proposals to exempt
certain minor amendments to planning permission from further application, and
to further delegate the Town Planning Board's powers and functions to its committees
and public officer. With
a view to enhancing the transparency of the planning system, an applicant for
amendment of plan or for planning permission will be required to obtain consent
of or notify the land owner of the application site, and the Town Planning Board
will also be required to publish all applications for amendment of plan and for
planning permission for public comments by posting site notices or publishing
notices in newspapers. The
Amendment Bill also includes provisions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness
of planning enforcement control against unauthorized developments in the rural
New Territories. The
Government introduced a Town Planning Bill (the Bill) into the LegCo in 2000 proposing
an overhaul of the statutory planning system. Due to the diversity and complexity
of the issues involved, the Bills Committee was not able to complete consideration
of the Bill before the last term of LegCo ended in July 2000. "We
decide to adopt a phased approach to bring forth those less controversial proposals
with clear and immediate benefits to the community and thus greater public acceptance.
The Amendment Bill includes the first stage amendments to the Town Planning Ordinance,"
the spokesman said.
3. Green group tries to block prison on Hei Ling Chau
HEIKE
PHILLIPS, Environment Reporter, SCMP 10 May 2003 A
green group opposed to government plans to build a $12 billion "superjail"
on Hei Ling Chau will ferry legislators and district councillors to the pristine
area today in the hope of swaying them against the project. Organisers
have chartered a ferry to take senior government officials, members of the Finance
Committee and district councillors on a two-hour tour of the proposed site off
Lantau Island. "We're
trying to give the government an opportunity to re-think this. We want the Finance
Committee to reject a request for $46 million to fund a feasibility study for
building this prison at Hei Ling Chau," said Tom Masterson, a spokesman for
the Living Islands Movement (LIM), formed to fight the development. The
island is home to Bogadek's legless lizard, which is endemic to Hong Kong and
can only be found on Hei Ling Chau, Shek Kwu Chau and Sunshine Island. Residents
from nearby villages and those in sight of the proposed prison fear it will cause
significant environmental damage and limit the area's potential for tourism development.
A study by the
University of Hong Kong's department of ecology and biodiversity recently identified
Hei Ling Chau as one of about 70 ecological "hot spots" in Hong Kong.
"We don't
think the government has presented a successful case for the need for such a prison,"
Mr Masterson said. "For
example, up to half of the inmates crowding the existing facilities are illegal
immigrants who will eventually be repatriated to the mainland. "Most
of them serve relatively short sentences for working illegally. If the government
commits to solve this long-standing problem with Guangdong [repatriating the illegal
immigrants] we can ease overcrowding and don't need a super-expensive `superjail'.
"We will
challenge this. The prison will be clearly visible from areas like Discovery Bay,
the new Disney theme park, the Peak and Cyberport. We want the government to re-think
this - this time with due public involvement." The
group argues the area would be much better suited to the development of a "fisherman's
wharf", capitalising on its proximity to the Disney park. The
facility on Hei Ling Chau would house about 7,000 prisoners, replacing eight prisons.
The proposal
will be presented to the Finance Committee for funding approval next Friday.
4. China Flu: Make the name fit the disease
FENG
CHI-SHUN, SCMP 10 May 2003 My
old professor used to say: There is nothing new under the sun; it's just that
we keep inventing new names. Before we named the disease Sars, we called it atypical
pneumonia. To
start with, what is atypical pneumonia? It is caused by common micro-organisms
such as streptococcus and haemophilus, which are relatively easy to identify in
the laboratory. It affects mostly the very young, very old, and the infirm. Usually,
only one or more lobes of the lungs are affected, as an X-ray or autopsy will
show, hence another name: lobar pneumonia. It used to respond magically to penicillin,
the first widely available antibiotic. What
is atypical pneumonia? The term was coined in the 1930s during an outbreak of
unusual pneumonia, but its definition changes over time. Theoretically, any pneumonia
that differs from the above description is atypical, and the micro-organisms involved
are generally difficult to identify. "Atypical" pneumonia has come to
cover more and more micro-organisms over the decades as they became identified
as causes of pneumonia. Most
notable was a pneumonia outbreak in 1976 among participants at an American legionnaires'
convention in Philadelphia. The offending microbe was later named Legionella pneumophila.
Pneumonias associated with many viral infections also fit nicely into this category.
Ideally, the
treatment of any pneumonia should be directed at finding the underlying cause.
Not being able to identify the microbe and instead classifying it as "atypical"does
not help the doctor treating the patient. Calling the disease Sars (for severe
acute respiratory syndrome) is not helpful either. Not only does the name not
reveal the cause of the disease, but the case definition from the World Health
Organisation is too all-encompassing. That
brings up another issue: Did we have atypical pneumonia in Hong Kong before Sars,
and if so, how often? Last year, Hong Kong's public hospitals recorded 13,480
cases of atypical pneumonia, of which 774 required intensive care and 370 died,
according to government figures. Hence,
before Sars, we had, on average, 37 new cases of atypical pneumonia, with one
death per day. This week, the government has been reporting new cases of Sars
in the single digits daily. What has happened to the 30-odd daily cases of atypical
pneumonia of last year, which would definitely fit the WHO case definition of
Sars? Last year's
pneumonia cases were presumably classified as "atypical" because the
offending micro-organisms were never confirmed. Some of these cases could conceivably
have been due to the coronavirus, which is known to cause the common cold, pneumonia
and gastroenteritis in humans, albeit as a less virulent and contagious strain.
By the same token, some of the so-called Sars cases we see today could be caused
by other sporadic micro-organisms unrelated to the current epidemic. Without
a reliable test to diagnose coronavirus infection, we will never know whether
we are facing a run-of-the-mill case of "atypical pneumonia" from unknown
causes, or dealing with the super-contagious strain of coronavirus. We
need a name for a new disease, just as we need one for a newborn baby or a new
war. Now the coronavirus has been identified as the cause of Sars, it is better
to call it what it is - coronavirus pneumonia. What we need most is a reliable
test to diagnose coronavirus infection, not a catchy name with a nebulous case
definition for a distinct disease entity. Feng
Chi-shun is a consultant pathologist at St Paul's Hospital, Causeway Bay.
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