Govt promises new Tung Chung public market

The government has promised to build a new public market in Tung Chung to meet the district’s growing population.

It’s one of a number of measures on shopping markets announced in the CE policy address earlier in October and confirmed by a senior official in responses to Legco.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department is also promising to provide air-conditioning to 11 market sites and to “improve facilities and administration” at all markets, Ming Pao reports. Other new public markets are planned for Tin Shui Wai and Hung Shui Kiu.

Government planners predict that Tung Chung’s population will increase from around 80,000 residents today to approximately 268,000 by the middle of the next decade.

Tung Chung’s Yat Tung, along with Tin Shui Wai, is one of the city’s most economically-challenged areas, with high unemployment and low incomes. Many residents say they are unable to afford local supermarket prices, and take advantage of a government transport subsidy to travel to Mong Kok each week to buy food and necessities.

Community group Alliance on the Development of Public Markets has complained that the government proposal contains no detail and no timetable.

Two years ago the group recommended five sites for a new Tung Chung market, but has so far had no official response. The proposed sites include the Tung Chung Cable Station next to Tat Tung Road Garden, the Chung Wai St bus depot and the Yat Tung No. 3 car park.

The group called on the government to set out its timetable for the construction of the markets and to consult widely on site selection and the market scale.

Photo: Market, Yat Tung (Lantau News)

Lantau rural chiefs defy govt with plan to oust cattle and buffalo

The ink is barely dry on the government’s long-term Lantau development plan, but one of its core principles is under challenge from rural chiefs in their latest attempt to expel cattle and buffalo.

The Sustainable Lantau Blueprint, issued in June, calls for the conservation of rural Lantau’s natural and cultural heritage.

It specifically demands the protection of the Pui O wetland, home to the local buffalo herd, which it acknowledges as as “part of [Pui O’s] cultural history” and an important means of showcasing Hong Kong’s rural history. It also seeks the preservation of Mui Wo’s “rural township character.”

However, the Islands District Council and local rural committees are once again lobbying the AFCD to remove Lantau’s remaining cattle and buffalo.

This time their plan is to shift them to Tai A Chau, an island in the Sokos with limited water supplies and no wetland that could support buffalo.

Despite this, the AFCD cattle team is understood to have told an October 12 meeting that the plan was feasible. However, they also said the idea was not practical because there was no way for them staff to conveniently reach the remote location.

The meeting, organized by the Islands District Council, was attended by Wong Man-hong and Fan Chi-ping – the heads respectively of the Mui Wo and Tung Chung rural committees – a member of the South Lantao Rural Committee, district councillor Randy Yu, LanDAC member Chau Cheun Heung, Bui O Public School principal Yu Mei Fong, Home Affairs Department officials and four representatives from cattle support groups.

One attendee told Lantau News the rural leaders argued that the move was necessary for safety reasons, although they were unable to explain why the buffalo posed a bigger safety threat than speeding traffic on EVA.

Despite the AFCD reservations, the rural councillors and Randy Yu urged the AFCD to go ahead with a trial.

The current effort to remove Lantau’s bovines is the latest of many.

In one notorious case in 2006, several dozen cattle were removed byAFCD truck to Fan Lau, but only three survived the journey.

In 2013, the AFCD experimented by swapping cattle herds between South Lantau and Sai Kung. One of the Lantau cattle died and many of the remainder, unable to food in the unfamiliar environment, had to be hand-fed. The trial was terminated after the department was hauled before a Legco sub-committee.

In the last two years the plan to remove the animals to Tai A Chau has emerged on a number of occasions, only for the government in each instance to deny it.

An online petition opposing the relocation states:

We believe that Lantau Island has absolutely sufficient capacity for the conservation of all cows and buffaloes. Any form of relocation out of Lantau Island is not needed. In addition, we demand the government to establish a long-term conservation policy, allocating resources to conserve them in their original habitats.

Two arrested over indecent assault on Tung Chung bus

Two men were arrested following an alleged sexual assault on a bus in Tung Chung last night.

Police say a 35-year-old woman and her 39-year-old friend were indecently assaulted by a man surnamed Choi, 43, in a bus on Kin Tung Rd in Tung Chung North, Oriental Daily reported.

A male friend of the women, a 32-year-old named Hong, is alleged to have then punched Choi in the face, causing an eye injury.

Police went to the scene and arrested Choi and sent him to hospital. They also took Hong into custody over the assault on Choi. Inquiries are continuing.

Developer withdraws Pui O caravan park plan

Pui O business group JK Group Limited has withdrawn its application for a caravan park and holiday camp.

The application to the Town Planning Board (TPB) was originally scheduled to be heard in June, but was extended twice because of the number of objections.

The TPB was due to review the case today, but the board’s website reveals that the plan was “withdrawn by the applicant.”

In a post on its web page last month JK Ltd attacked what it called “misleading and dafamatory expressions made by several foreigners in the social media.”

It said it regarded “such behaviour as a commercial attack rather than an environmental issue.”

 

Mui Wo bus & ferry operators to add capacity but not new services

Lantau bus and ferry companies are adding capacity to meet the expected spike in passengers next year, but have no plans to schedule extra services.

With Mui Wo’s population expected to increase by as much as 40% in the second half of 2018, First Ferry has ordered five new large vessels and the New Lantao Bus Company is tendering for double-decker buses,

But First Ferry says even with the new boats it won’t have capacity for new services.

Transport, police and Hospital Authority officials as well as public transport operators appeared before the Islands District Council meeting early this week to explain how they are preparing for Mui Wo’s growth spurt. As many as 2000 residents will move into two new Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) estates starting next August.

First Ferry has bought five new 423-seat vessels – previously the largest carried just 403 passengers – and says two are already in service. The other three will be deployed from the first quarter of next year.

New Lantao Bus Company is planning to run double-decker buses on the 3M route between Mui Wo and Tung Chung. It said it held a successful trial early this year and has just tendered for 14 double-decker vehicles.

First Ferry communication manager Chow Suk Man told the council morning peak-hour fast ferries were currently running at 80-90% capacity. Already one of the new large ferries is being deployed at 7am from Mui Wo.

But in response to Councillor Randy Yu, who asked if a backup ferry could be deployed in morning peak period, Chow said there was not enough spare capacity.

“If there are school trips or organisations planning to take this particular ferry, and if we are informed in advance, we can arrange a spare ferry for such occasions,” she said. But there was no spare ferry for a permanent arrangement.

Chow acknowledged it was difficult to plan without knowing the exact numbers of likely passengers. The company had requested information from the Transport Department about the size of the working population.

NLB vice chairman Chan Ching Lung said the company believed the double-decker buses could increase carrying capacity by 40-50%. The bus operator runs four special services from Pui O each morning which are 70-80% filled, he said.

Dead porpoise found on Cheungsha Beach

The corpse of a finless porpoise with a slightly injured tale was found on Upper Cheungsha Beach on Thursday morning.

Police called in a team from the Hong Kong Ocean Park Conservation Foundation who confirmed it was a male, about 1.4 metres long, aged between juvenile and adult, Oriental Daily reported.

The porpoise  appeared to be stranded on the beach, but Ocean Park vets who studied the body say they are not certain over the cause of death.

According to AFCD figures, around 20 Indo-Pacific finless porpoises are stranded on Hong Kong beaches each year.

The Ocean Park Conservation Foundation urges people to call 1823 if they find a stranded dolphin or porpoise.

[This story was updated to indicate that Ocean Park vets are unclear over the cause of death]

Photo: AFCD file photo

Govt cash for broadband plan catches industry attention

CE Carrie Lam’s promise to subsidise rural broadband could speed up the deployment of high-speed internet, but it is still too early to tell.

A senior HKT engineer told Lantau News the company was interested in the proposal outlined in Lam’s October 11 policy address, but government officials had been unable to add any detail.

Most likely no more information will emerge until the budget is handed down in February, an assistant to IT sector legislator Charles Mok said.

Lam said her plan would cover “about 380 villages currently without high-speed” coverage and would benefit nearly 170,000 people.

Hong Kong ranks near the top in global broadband speeds in most surveys. In the Speedtest Global Index it places second behind Singapore with peak speed of 145Mbps.

But until 18 months ago South Lantau residents went online via HKT’s old copper network, with most people receiving no more than 4-5Mbps downlinks and many even less.

That began to change last year when a new firm, Top Express, began building a fibre network in Mui Wo.

Today some Mui Wo villages have access to the Top Express fibre – with HGC as service provider – which can deliver 500Mbps or 1Gbps on the downlink.

The arrival of the new player appears to have jolted HKT into action as well. It has upgraded its copper network to a newer technology, VDSL, which offers 100Mbps service, in Mui Wo, Pui O, Ham Tin, Tong Fuk and Shui Hau.

Top Express also said it would install fibre in Tong Fuk this year, but a company executive said this week that had been delayed until 2018.

The HKT engineer said the company wanted to explore using wireless technologies to connect some of the hard-to-reach villages. Current 4G technology is now reaching top speeds of 1Gbps and the coming era of 5G is promising to increase that tenfold.

For remote Lantau villages such as Sham Wat and Tai Long Wan, wireless would be a faster and less expensive option than fibre, he said.

Buffalo photo comp: And the winner is….

Natasha Ramsey’s captivating buffalo portrait has taken out first prize in the Amazing Bovid of Lantau photo competition.

Her winning photo of a buffalo at Cheung Sha garnered 95 votes in the final round of the competition to take out the prize.

Look into my soul (Natasha Ramsey)

The competition, organised by the LBA attracted nearly 100 entries.

For a look at the six photos that made it through to the final, go here.

Tung Chung bad air index hits ‘very high’ – more on the way

Tung Chung’s air quality readings again reached ‘very high’ yesterday, with more bad air forecast for later this week.

EPD air monitoring stations in Tung Chung recorded pollution in the ‘high’ and ‘very high’ levels for four hours late yesterday afternoon, peaking at 5pm.

The ozone reading was 162.7 micrograms, more than 50% above the World Health Organization standard of 100 micrograms per cubic meter. The concentration of fine particulates, PM2.5, reached 58.2 micrograms, 25 micrograms higher than the WHO standard.

The outlook for today is moderate, but the World Air Qualty Index website predicts further high levels this week, in particular Wednesday morning and early Saturday morning.

The high pollution levels across Hong Kong and much of Guangdong are the result of a northeast monsoon which is bringing dry sunny weather and light winds – ideal conditions for photochemical smog.

Under the EPD’s Air Quality Health Index (AQHI), a reading of 7 is high, 8-10 is very high, and above 10 is serious.

In ‘very high’ pollution conditions the EPD advises children, the elderly and those with heart or respiratory diseases to reduce outdoor exertion and stay indoors, especially those living in areas with heavy vehicle traffic.

Star power shines on Mui Wo

Mui Wo felt the touch of superstar power last weekend as one of Hong Kong’s biggest movie stars, Chow Yun Fat, spent an afternoon here.

Chow, 62, once described by the Los Angeles Times as “the coolest actor in the world,” is one of Hong Kong’s best-loved and most successful actors, famed for his performances in films such as A Better Tomorrow, God of Gambling and Bulletproof Monk.

For Village Bakery proprietor Kit Lau, a true Hollywood-style encounter would have been for her idol to enter her store and fall in love with her cheesecake and cinnamon rolls.

But as it happened she heard was having a drink on the plaza outside China Bear so she rushed over, mobile phone in hand.

 

Chow and his friends were about to take the ferry, but he was more than willing to do a selfie. Said Kit:

It seems he already knew I was going to take a picture with him. [He was] very welcoming and I introduced our bakery to him and his friends. They were ready to go on boat so they couldn’t visit Village Bakery. He asked if I serve pineapple bun with a cube of salted cold butter, he will pay a visit next time

Lamma-born Chow’s other link to Lantau is his role of Sao Feng, based on legendary Lantau-based pirate Cheung Po-tsai, in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.