TNAG-1174-FCO40-1476-Proposed-replacement-airport-for-Hong-Kong-at-Deep-Bay-or-Ch-1982 — Page 70

5.4.5

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in planning terms.

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The NWNT report states that "Selection of a centre in the north (of the rural hinterland) was

problematic since a natural focus does not currently exist. The deciding factor was the demonstrated desire of the San Tin villagers to secure expansion and improvement for their area. On strictly planning grounds therefore, the exclusion of San Tin would not be a problem provided an alter- native rural centre could be found which was less affected by airport-induced noise. More difficult would be the political aspects of this change in policy. The San Tin villagers have over a number of years articulated ambitious development aspirations and these are soon to be expressed in a revised Master Plan for San Tin prepared for the villagers by con- sultants and understood to have target population for the area of 60,000.

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man-

fish-

MAI PO MARSHES PROPOSALS : The proposals to upgrade Mai Po Marshes as a managed nature reserve to protect and enhance its conservation value and to develop there a wildfowl park with pinioned wildfowl for public display for recreational and educational purposes would be incompatible with an airport. As regards the made wildfowl park, it would be technically feasible to locate it in an alternative location, in the context of an airport probably outside the NWNT. As previously suggested by David Melville (former AFD ornithologist), such a "created" park would include a cross-section of habitats ie. sand-bars (for gulls and terns), mud- flats (for waders and shorebirds), shallow water with reed-beds and mangroves (for shorebirds) and open areas of deeper water with fringe reed beds, mangroves and small islands (for ducks, egrets and herons). A pond area, for example, could be converted to include the above habitats. It must be emphasised however that such a wildfowl park would accordingly contain only a "cross-section" of bird-life for public display - ie. essentially a park for people, not a a nature reserve for wild birds. It would in no way duplicate the function of the existing Mai Po Marshes as a major feeding ground and roosting area for large numbers of resident and migratory birds. Such a nature reserve (ie mud-flats, mangroves and habitats typical of Kei wais) would require a far greater land area and more complex habitat management problems. Since the area would be primarily for nature conservation (for the birds, so to speak), then it is doubtful whether, in the Hong Kong context, such a scheme would be considered economically or politically justifiable.

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