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1. Tamar: call for dioxins debate fails

2. Civic Party vows to fight all way on Tamar plan

1. Tamar: call for dioxins debate fails
Leslie Kwoh, The Standard 20 June 2006

Two Legislative Council panels have rejected calls for special meetings to discuss the presence of dioxins in the soil at the Tamar development site.

A group of Civic Party and independent lawmakers had last week submitted a request to the panel on land, planning and works to hold a special meeting Monday. The proposal was rejected by a majority of the 17 members.

Independent lawmaker and panel member Kwok Ka-ki said Monday he was "very disappointed" at the rejection but was awaiting a reply to a similar request submitted to environmental affairs panel chairman Choy So-yuk.

However, in a later interview, Choy also rejected the request, saying the topic fell outside her panel's purview.

"Our panel can only discuss the treatment of dioxins, but even that is not such an urgent issue and can wait until after the Finance Committee approves funding for the project," she said.

While admitting she does not know whether the government has specifically tested the site for dioxins, Choy said she was satisfied with environment chief Sarah Liao Sau-tung's assurances Friday that the level of dioxins at the Tamar site and in Victoria Harbour is 30 to 50 times lower than the international standard.

"If you ask my honest opinion, if it comes to the worst, the best way of treating the dioxins is to let them stay underwater. They're not harmful to anybody," Choy said.

The call for a meeting came after biologist Laurie Wan Shek-luen presented to legislators a copy of a 1993 study he made, showing 718.4 picograms of dioxins at the site's seabed.

While the sample was taken 100 meters away from the actual site, Wan said he suspected the concentration would be "much higher" at the site, where there are no water currents to help disperse the chemicals.

But even in Victoria Harbour , the city's appetite for reclamation had probably churned up highly contaminated sediment, the report said, and the resulting narrowed harbor channel had inhibited the water's self-purifying process.

Wan's claims were again refuted Monday by acting Chief Secretary Michael Suen Ming-yeung who, in a scathing letter to the South China Morning Post accused Tamar opponents of circulating "hearsay, rumors and half- truths." Suen also questioned the fairness of an opinion poll, conducted by the SCMP, which found that only 28 percent of the public would want to see Tamar turned into a government complex.

"It is puzzling why [the poll] did not ask a fairer question: `Do you think the new government headquarters, a new Legislative Council complex, and an open space, should take up the Tamar site?"' he wrote. "Individual critics have accused us of a lack of consultation. But, when we do explain the facts to them, some of them become as deaf as a post."

But with only three days until the Finance Committee takes the final vote on the project, critics are showing no sign of letting up.

Kwok, also convenor of the Action Group on the Protection of the Harbour, said he will today release the results of a public opinion poll refuting the government's claim that the majority of the public supports the Tamar project.

And, continuing its call for more alternatives, members of the Civic Party, including Audrey Eu Yuet-mee and Ronny Tong Ka-wah, unveiled Monday its model for the new government headquarters at Murray Building , commissioned from Masterplan Planning and Development Advisors.

According to the alternative vision, Murray Building would provide the same gross floor area - 99,744 square meters - as the proposed Tamar complex. The extra space would be achieved by raising the building's plot ratio from 5.6 to 9.5, creating an extra 23,750 sqm of gross floor area.

"It's very simple. There are also other options, of course, but this is just one visual representation of some of the possibilities available at the site," said Masterplan director Ian Brownlee.

2. Civic Party vows to fight all way on Tamar plan
MAY CHAN , SCMP 20 June 2006

The Civic Party yesterday vowed to continue its fight against building a government headquarters on the Tamar site, even though the government looks set to secure $5.1 billion in funding on Friday to finance design and construction of the project.

In a last attempt at mustering public support, the party unveiled a model of its earlier, alternative proposal, which involves building a 20-storey, 23,700-square-metre annex to the Murray Building in Central.

The proposal also involves renovating existing offices at the Central Government Offices and Murray Building .

The party said this would be much cheaper than the Tamar proposal, and open the 4.2-hectare waterfront site to options including parks, open spaces and other public facilities.

Leader Audrey Eu Yuet-mee said the party, which started a signature campaign on Sunday, would do its best to convince legislators to vote against the funding proposal, even though all other political parties have said they will back the project.

Democrat Albert Ho Chun-yan said his party had no plan to change its stance on the vote.

Ms Eu said: "Legislators should serve to monitor the government and be responsible to the public. On Friday, legislators will cast their votes. And we will try our best."

Civic Party member Alan Leong Kah-kit admitted the chances of stopping funding from being approved were slim. "It has become clear that the government will be able to force its way through Legco if it really wants to," he said.

"However, even if the funding proposal is approved, it won't be the end of the battle because the government has yet to get approval on design and planning details."