SCMP: Developer reveals why illegal bridge was built

Developer reveals why illegal bridge was built
By: Cheung Chi-fai

The demolition of an illegal bridge across a stream at an abandoned Tai Po village yesterday upset a village-house developer which had been hoping to use it as access to sites on a nearby hillside.

Representatives of the developer arrived at the site as Lands Department officers and hired workers moved in under police escort to pull down the bridge and remove a cement-paved track across government land to which the officers said they had earlier been denied access with threats.

One representative, Gigi Cheng, said they had asked Shan Liu village chief Leung Pak-keung for a bridge to give access to sites on the hillside near a site owned by Leung to which the illegal track leads.

Cheng said the Shan Liu area - which now has no permanent residents - would become very prosperous, as many small houses would be built there. But she denied any houses would be built on Leung's land, which would become a lychee orchard. Leung has said he wants to turn it into an organic farm.

She also said the bridge was bigger than needed. "A bridge with a third of the width is enough," she said.

Meanwhile Leung, who earlier said he was responsible for building the bridge and track, said he would not pay for the demolition, leaving open the possibility that taxpayers will foot the bill.

"I will pay nothing," he said as the demolition went ahead. "Let them hold me responsible if they can and put me in jail if they want. What they are doing is totally unjustified."

He will not consider applying to rebuild the bridge and track.

The demolition began after Leung agreed to allow the department to cross private land which is the only access to the site.

The difficulties faced by the department in removing these works and another illegal road in another part of the village prompted lawmakers and environmentalists to say there appeared to be different standards of law enforcement in the urban and rural areas.

Leung said earlier that he had considered seeking approval for the work but that the process took too long.

The department refused to say yesterday who would foot the bill for the demolition. "So far no suspect has been located in respect of the illegal occupation of the government land concerned," a spokesman said.

Lands officers, with heavy back-up from other departments, gained unobstructed access to the site. Accompanied by 10 police officers - led by the Tai Po divisional commander - a standby dog catching team from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and a Tai Po district councillor, four lands officers and eight workers finally started the demolition work.

They brought in metal poles to build a supporting structure, a hand-held digger and a power generator to start removing the bridge. The removal is expected to take a week.

The officers claimed they were threatened with "force and duress" about two weeks ago when they tried in vain to inspect the illegal works.

Later, on May 8, lands officers accompanied by a dozen anti-triad police made their way through boulders and bushes along a stream to erect bollards at the start of the road so it could not be used.

It remains unclear whether the Lands Department will move on to remove a 500-metre cement-paved road built early last year on government land elsewhere in the village.