Civil servants 'violating neutrality' by pushing artificial beach at Lung Mei

A green group has accused civil servants of crossing the lines of political neutrality, saying that in 2008 they actively created public support for or eliminated objections to plans for a man-made beach in Tai Po.

In one instance, officers of the Civil Engineering and Development Department talked 12 pupils at a Kwun Tong secondary school out of opposing the reclamation of Tolo Harbour waters at Lung Mei, along Ting Kok Road.

In another case, the same officers, along with Tai Po district councillors, persuaded two groups of fishermen to withdraw their objections as well.

The Development Bureau said it had collected 23 objections during a 2008 public consultation on the project. Seventeen of the objections came from a group of geography pupils, of which 12 withdrew their petition after the department's senior engineer, Ricky Wong Chi-pan, made repeated visits to the school to meet them, according to the minutes of a meeting of the Tai Po District Council in July 2008.

Roy Tam Hoi-pong, president of Green Sense, said opponents of an environmental project would normally be invited to a government office for a meeting, instead of being visited at their school or workplace.

"Such a visit would exert pressure on the school and pupils, and its purpose would be not to hear others' views, but to terminate objections," Tam said.