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Sherry Lee

New Territories power broker and executive councillor Lau Wong-fat is embroiled in a row over a HK$5 million 'access' payment demanded from a group of villagers displaced by work on the cross-border express rail line.   
Forty-seven families from Tsoi Yuen Tsuen in Yuen Long have bought land on which to build homes and farms three kilometres away in Yuen Kong village, Pat Heung.
The head of a group fighting for the villagers' rights said a relative of Lau (pictured) - Leung Kam-ting - and four other people requested a payment of HK$500,000 from the 47 families to use the only road into Yuen Kong. They say that request was followed by another demand from a middleman for HK$5 million to secure access to the land they bought.
A spokesman for Lau, who is also chairman of the Heung Yee Kuk, the powerful group representing New Territories indigenous villagers, confirmed Leung had made the HK$500,000 demand. Lau, who brokered the deal by which the Tsoi Yuen villagers bought the Yuen Kong land, is expected to step in tomorrow in a bid to settle the issue. 
As a result of the row, the 47 families remain in Tsoi Yuen Tsuen despite the passing of the government's October deadline for them to move out for construction on the express railway to Guangzhou to start.
They say they are trapped, having paid HK$18 million for the 188,000 square feet of land in Yuen Kong this month in the hope they would only have to pay the HK$500,000  'access fee' agreed earlier. The 500-metre road, owned by 18 different parties, provides the only vehicle access to the land. If they cannot use it, the villagers cannot transport construction materials to the site.  
Chu Hoi-dick, of the Tsoi Yuen Village Support Group, said no one had said what would happen if villagers used the road without paying.
Two metal bars across the road prevent vehicles using it. 
Land law specialist Daniel Wong Kwok-tung said it was illegal to prevent use of the road. The new villagers had a 'right of way' as the road had been in public use for years. Wong said: 'They can call police to complain and the Lands Department. A further step would be to take the landlords to court.' 
A spokesman for Lau Wong-fat confirmed Leung Kam-ting, a Yuen Kong village representative, made the demand for HK$500,000. He said Leung was a relative of Lau and that Lau had helped negotiate the fee.
Leung refused to say whether he had demanded a fee to use the road. 
Democratic Party legislator Wong Sing-chi said Lau had a conflict of interest. 'As a mediator, he got the trust of Tsoi Yuen villagers. But the villagers were asked for a fee to use the road, and the landlord asking for the fee is his relative. Is that right?' 
But Lau's spokesman said: 'It's private land. Why is it not reasonable to charge for using the road? Giving vehicular access to the existing villagers is a friendly gesture. But [the Tsoi Yuen villagers] are outsiders and there are so many moving in. How can you use people's land for free?' 
Negotiations between landlords and Tsoi Yuen villagers began in May. In August, two middlemen acting for five landlords who between them own 120 metres of the road  demanded HK$200,000 for its use and for the use of 2,000 square feet of their land for a car park. 
Last month, the terms changed to HK$500,000 minus the land. 
But at the end of last month, when the villagers were due to sign a 'deed of grant of right of way' - and days before the deadline to pay for the land they were buying - they were told someone else wanted an additional HK$5 million.
Lau's spokesman said the Heung Yee Kuk head had not heard of anyone demanding HK$5 million.
Ko Chun-heung, spokeswoman for a Tsoi Yuen villagers' action group,  said she was told that the HK$5 million was demanded by a prominent  indigenous villager, but could not reach the man to confirm this. Chu said the villager did not own any part of the road. 
'The middlemen said we must pay the HK$5 million before we can sign the HK$500,000 agreement with them,' he said. 
Ko and Chu said the villagers would not pay the HK$5 million. 
Ko said: 'We can't afford it. Our compensation from the government for clearing our homes is just enough to buy the land and build houses.'
A spokeswoman for the Transport and Housing Bureau would not say whether charging access fees was legal, and said the bureau could not and would not intervene in 'a private land deal'.



Kuk chief in HK$5m access row