Fanling golf course D-Day set

The next chapter of the Fanling course will be revealed next Friday when the High Court hands down a verdict on the Hong Kong Golf Club's judicial review.

The club filed a judicial review on the government's environmental impact assessment report, which it said had seriously underestimated the ecological and environmental values of the golf course.

Speaking before High Court judge Russell Coleman, senior counsel Benjamin Yu Yuk-hoi, for the club, said authorities are destroying people's collective memory and failing to protect cultural heritage.

"The 100-year-old golf course is recognized by authorities as a cultural heritage, while it is also one of the best and most beautiful golf courses in Asia, so the government should minimize unfavorable impacts on it," Yu said.

Authorities also have the responsibility to identify old and valuable trees on the course.

"Authorities identified 80 unregistered but potentially old and valuable trees in 2017. The government cannot say that those trees are unregistered and cannot identify them as old and valuable trees," Yu said.

Under Hong Kong law, once registered, those trees cannot be cut down or transplanted, so the government should not build public housing there.

"Authorities should not disregard conservation, ecology and cultural heritage to develop the golf course into a public housing estate to solve a land and housing problem," Yu said.

But judge Coleman said even if the government decided to withdraw its decision, it did not need to redo an environmental impact assessment.

"Unless the government makes clear that they will redo an environmental impact assessment report, this judicial review will be merely an academic discussion," Coleman said.

In response, Yu said he believes the government will respect the outcome of the report, and will not disregard the old and valuable trees and endangered species to force the development of public housing.

For the government, former secretary of justice and senior counsel Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung agreed with the judge, saying the suspension of the government's decision is unnecessary.

"The Civil Engineering and Development Department has already promised not to undergo any preparatory work for the housing development project within the next two years or before a court ruling is made," Yuen said.

The club is also only disputing facts related to the environmental impact assessment report, he said.

Even if the club won the judicial review and the judge overruled the government's decision, Yuen argued the government does not need to rewrite a report and the ruling applied only to future reports. The Environmental Protection Department needs only to make a new decision based on the old report, and the judicial review will not affect the land use of the golf course, nor will it affect the government's decision, he said. "If the club is trying to keep the Fanling golf course as a golf course in the future with this judicial review, it has chosen the wrong battlefield," Yuen said.

Judge Coleman said he will hand down a verdict next Friday.

michael.shum@singtaonewscorp.com