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16-NOV-1990
19:22
HK GOVERNMENT HOUSE
+852 521 1868 P.07
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are entirely at the discretion of the owner. So any owner
can effect, without seeking the agreement of anyone else,
his neighbours, his local village head, the Land Office,
change to any user which does not involve building
construction and which is not offensive or noxious or
otherwise illegal. A recent survey showed that some 380 ha
of land in the New Territories have been converted to open
storage uses, of which 45% are for storage of construction
materials and equipment, 23% for motor vehicles and 13% for
containers.
4.
Largely through conversions of agricultural
land to open storage uses the character of the North Western
New Territories has completely changed in the last five
years; the changes are spreading into Tai Po and could in
due course also affect Sai Kung, particularly along new
village roads.
5.
Change on this scale shows that the demand for
storage is very strong and needs to be met somehow.
(Government itself is putting out more land on tenancies for
this purpose, but demand has far exceeded supplies of Crown
land.) But the change of environment which takes place both.
at the local level when, say, a car stripper or a container
store starts operation on the land next door to one's house,
: