On April 5th, the SCMP reported that the rooftop garden at The Pawn on Johnston Road is actually public space.

The rooftop of the building, which is decorated as a garden, is public open space under a consensus between the government and the URA. However, its status as a public open space is not stated clearly either on the lease or the master layout plan of the development.

The only hint that the area is an open space is a sign posted next to the lift inside the building, which says the roof garden is open to the public daily from 11am to 11pm.

But a letter in today’s SCMP from Angela Tang, “General Manager (External Relations), Urban Renewal Authority” (that’s a mouthful of a title) says:

The rooftop garden of 60-66 Johnston Road is not a public open space pursuant to the land lease and the approved master layout plan of the development.

The current arrangement of making the roof garden accessible to the public at designated hours is the intention of the Urban Renewal Authority and its joint venture partner to facilitate members of the public to enjoy and appreciate the architecture of the restored historical buildings.

So is Ms. Tang prevaricating? Or did the SCMP reporters get the original story wrong?

A couple of articles in the SCMP on current conditions at Stanley:

Seaweed, plastic bags and food packages lie everywhere at the southern side of Stanley Main Beach, in contrast with the tidy northern side.

A visit yesterday found rubbish and seaweed brought by ocean currents scattered around the area, while broken trailers, abandoned water sports equipment and waste bins were piled at the back of the beach. Just a stone’s throw away, bathers were enjoying the clean and clutter-free northern side of the beach.

Alson Wong Kam-chuen, chairman of the Stanley Residents Association, said this was no surprise, as the beach’s management was split between two different government departments. “The Leisure and Cultural Services Department takes care of the northern part, and it has sufficient manpower and vehicles to do cleaning every day,” he said. “The other side belongs to the Lands Department. The contract workers they hire also come regularly. But they have fewer people and rely heavily on manual work.”

And this one:

The Liechtenstein Princely Navy is on the warpath. The navy’s self-styled “Admiral” Silvan Colani, and other members of Hong Kong’s large dragon boat community, say that they will soon have no beach left on which to drop anchor in Stanley.

They blame a windsurfing rental shop which has recently built a “massive” concrete podium on the Stanley shoreline.

Barry Ho, the owner of the windsurfing rental shop, admitted he built the concrete platform earlier this year without government approval. “We submitted the application to the Lands Department two weeks ago and now we’re waiting for its response,” he said.

I love that last bit – that he submitted the application but didn’t wait for the approval, just went ahead and did what he wanted.

Meanwhile, over in Lamma Island:

The dumping of building debris into a stream has caused a furore on Lamma Island. A farmer claims he faces being forced from the land, a scientist says the habitat of a rare tree frog is being destroyed, and Lamma residents are fuming that a slice of green tranquillity has been lost.

The rubble, dumped on private land into a stream in the Yung Shue Long Valley, is believed to come from the demolition of a local restaurant and a large, disused sewage works.

Since the debris first began appearing in the valley on March 23, the mound has grown into a partial dam covering a 3-metre section of the stream, which residents believe blocks the water’s natural exit out of the valley and into the sea.

Whoever dumped the debris apparently placed a 60cm-diameter concrete pipe under the rubble to try to keep the stream flowing. However, the farmer, who was unwilling to give his name, said the pipe was far too small to drain the entire valley. “This will lead to the flooding of my land at least twice a year,” he said.

A group of angry residents has reported the dumping to the government, but it has continued.

District lands officer Choy Kin-lun said the department had already raised concerns about how well the concrete pipe would handle the runoff during rainstorms. In response to residents’ complaints, various government departments took part in a fact-finding inspection at the site on April 2.

The Environmental Protection Department conducted five surprise inspections to assess the levels of noise and air pollution caused by the dumping, but they were considered to be negligible on all occasions.

“From our investigations, the areas where construction waste has been deposited are all within private lots owned by different people,” Peter Diu Chin-pong, an environmental protection officer, said.

Officers inspecting the site found a man dumping construction waste, but were unable to do anything as the owner of the land said it was taking place under his direction.

The environment department said it would continue to monitor the situation and carry out spraying to prevent mosquito breeding.

Gosh, thanks for that.

And then there’s the 10 year old brouhaha at Fairview Park of heavy trucks driving down a private road through a residential estate … which apparently is now settled but it took 10 years to get something done.

And now we’re looking at these proposals to widen Hiram’s Highway in Sai Kung, which no one except the government seems to want. The Sai Kung district council has shut down public consultations on this on the basis that it would delay the start of construction. Years of noise, pollution and traffic jams await us for reasons that have not been fully explained. And the thing is, the existing road is only rarely backed up to overflowing. Most of the time traffic flows quite freely. Wider roads are not the answer. More public transportation options and more “Park & Ride” spots are.

When a tree fell over and killed a young woman standing nearby, in the midst of the SAR’s worst financial crisis in decades it was decided to place the #2 guy in the HK government in charge of trees. Maybe they could put the #3 guy in charge of protecting land for the public, or do we have to wait for someone to die first?