In July and October 2017, the government submitted documents to North District Council regarding the establishment and site selection of Agricultural Park (Agri-Park). Agri-Park was confirmed to be situated in Tsiu Keng, Kwu Tung South, covering an approximate area of 80 hectares. The establishment of Agri-Park will be divided into two phases and the first phase will cover around 11 hectares of land. Before the disclosure of sufficient information on planning of Agri-Park to the public, however, the government has already gazetted the proposed road works for Agri-Park (Phase 1) in November. The proposed works mainly involve the construction of a single two-lane carriageway of approximately 900 meters long and two vehicular bridges across Beas River from current Tsiu Keng Road. Including the footpaths, the proposed width of carriageway is approximately 10 meters and will go across active farmlands.
Currently, the main access road in Tsiu Keng is Tsiu Keng Road, which is a single lane two-way road (footpath included) with a width of 6 meters. It is unreasonable that a road leading only to Agri-Park will be wider than the main access road in the area at present. If the proposed road is successfully constructed, traffic congestion between the new road and Tsiu Keng Road will be resulted. The government will then use traffic improvement as an excuse for expanding Tsiu Keng Road and its junction, or Fan Kam Road currently connecting Tsiu Keng Road. These will increase traffic flow, and hence development pressure of roadside farmlands in the area.
It is admitted that the traffic facilities are important to the operation of agriculture. However, with insufficient data on the design and planning available to the public, it is uncertain how the proposed road could tie in with the planning of the two phases of Agri-Park. Why is a single lane two-way road not feasible? Is it possible to improve existing road and footpaths? How could the proposed road match up with other facilities inside the Agri-Park (e.g. temporary storage area, loading and unloading area, composting facilities, etc.)?
Instead of adopting a “cutting the Gordian knot” approach, what the government needs to do is to disclose more information on the planning of Agri-Park before gazetting the proposed road works, and not putting them together with items related to public living under Capital Works Reserve Fund.
