The Chi Kee Wood Factory in Kwudong, Sheung Shui, which has been in operation for more than 70 years and has been relocated several times, ushered in the final deadline for the official land resumption on Tuesday (September 13).
After the staff of the Lands Department called to urge the person in charge to speed up the clearing of materials and make psychological preparations, on Wednesday (September 14) a total of more than a dozen staff from the Civil Engineering and Development Department came to the door to request land resumption, but no actual site clearance was carried out that day. action.
In September 2019, the government gazetted the resumption of about 68 hectares of land included in the early and first phase of the Kwu Tung North New Development Area and the Fanling North New Development Area, citing the Land Resumption Ordinance and other laws, and will notify Zhi Kee by letter in November They must move out in the second half of 2021, and the relevant deadlines were subsequently extended to June 30 and September 13 this year.
The person in charge of the venue has always stated that he wants the authorities to continue to give leniency, but the department has recently stated that the same arrangement will not be made.
The administrative details of land resumption are slightly criticized
In all fairness, the Lands Department dispatched staff to measure the land area of the woodworks as early as October 2018. In the same month, the Town Planning Committee also held a meeting to discuss the relaxation of the plot ratio and building height restrictions for the relevant sites. The open letter stated that "the wood factory will soon face the fate of being demolished." It can be seen that the people involved should have been informed of the land resumption arrangements long ago. Nearly four years have to be said to be quite sufficient, and there are opinions in the public that criticize the government from this perspective. Not fair.
Nonetheless, there is undoubtedly room for improvement in some administrative arrangements or enforcement details of the authorities.
For example, when the lumber mill quoted the department's staff on the phone, they used words like "to do it by themselves." If this statement is true, it would obviously not be the behavior of a civil servant.
Another example is that when all parties inquire about the deadline for demolition or the consequences of violation, the personnel of various bureaus and departments have been unclear for a long time, which may not only give the society a sense of evasion of responsibility, but also make people involved feel at a loss.
On the other hand, although the Development Bureau stated that it would assist and support business operators affected by land resumption in finding private land for relocation operations, as of July this year, the records of the Lands Department still showed that the woodworks concerned did not request the authorities to provide relevant information. consulting and coordination services.
Considering that the person in charge has publicly expressed his willingness to reset many times, this is either due to his complete lack of confidence in government services, or he simply does not know that he has such rights, but in either case, there is room for improvement in the department's services. .
Compensation for helpless reset is the biggest problem
Moreover, even if the complete set of land resumption and management procedures have sufficient legal justifications and comply with administrative regulations, it does not mean that the entire wood factory land resumption incident is reasonable.
The authorities indicated that they would provide wood factory operators with an ex-gratia allowance for business operations, but this is only a measure that should be arranged under normal procedures, and it is not worth writing about. Especially the negative reactions of the responsible persons in the past few years are even more clear. Explain that the relevant amount is not enough to help him find another piece of land for relocation.
In addition, when the government reclaimed the "brownfields" in the New Territories for development in the early years, it would also try to find vacant government land for business operators to lease in the form of short-term leases, or even for them elsewhere in the new development area. Although space is reserved for planning multi-storey industrial buildings or open-air business sites, it seems that timber mills still do not enjoy the same arrangements, which inevitably raises questions about whether there are inconsistencies in the authorities' criteria for providing these support measures.
The difficulties encountered by Chi Kee are not an isolated case. With the progress of land resumption and development, more operators will fall into the same situation in the future. The government and all parties in the society should think about how to better balance the overall development and related industries as soon as possible. needs.
And for this last wood plant in Hong Kong, the wood processing operations it is engaged in do have additional benefits in terms of environmental protection. Unless we really have no choice, we might as well take more proactive actions to help it reset. and operate.
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