10
Interchangeability of Letter B
9.
As stated in paragraph 6(b)(i) any Letter B
entitlements can be used to acquire land in any New
Territories layout; but this was not always so. Originally,
each District issued its own Letter B, which could only be
used to acquire land within specified layouts in the
District. This was logical, as land-owners who contributed
their land towards a specific development area might
reasonably expect to participate in the development of
that area. Conversely, there is little reason why e.g.
the owner of lots surrendered for, say, Shek Wui Hui
development should expect to participate in the develop=
ment of Sha Tin. In the early days of the development of
Tsuen Wan/Kwai Chung (which pioneered the Letter B
system), great care was taken in the planning of urban
development areas to ensure that lands for exchange
purposes were formed together with lands for public
housing estates and other Government purposes, to ensure
that sufficient land would be available within a reasonable
time of resumptions to honour exchange commitments.
But,
in other districts, notably Yuen Long, very large areas
of land were surrendered for various purposes under Letter B
for which no new building land could be made available
for local exchanges. Because of the difficulties caused
by having a large commitment to Letter B holders without
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