TNAG-1373-FCO40-1819-Ministerial-visits-from-the-UK-to-Hong-Kong-1985 — Page 257

here) then under the proper system of land resumption, the San Tin district should all be rezoned as a single zone D, classified as "areas where resumptions are required sometimes for purposes directly connected with layout

layout development". (Look at ZONAL RATES OF COMPENSATION AT BACK). However, the government has unjustly resumed the land according to existing outdated zonal layouts (D,F,G) instead of paying a compensation at a revised single rate. STDMC maintains that the area in question should have been rezoned A prior to the service of the Compulsory Purchase Orders. It further maintains that the Hong Kong administration either did not at all, or did not properly, review the zoning of this area inspite of the San Tin Rural Committee making such recommendations and objections to the government well in time. The objectives of the STDMC are by no means speculative. The land is not owned by the STDMC it belongs to the thousands of individual landowners who have cultivated the land for over 700 years it has been their livelihood for over 25 generations. The STDMC was formed and serves only to protect the interests of its members and to realise the potential of development through the San Tin Master Plan since at that time the government had no funds to develop and upgrade San Tin. Its members did not want to

leave the future of the village to fate. The STDMC was formed to maximise this potential.

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The STDMC recognises the importance of the road network layout

linking Hong Kong to China and its significance in the development of Hong Kong. The government has deprived the villages of their right to the potential development of their own land which has been passed down through their ancestors for over 25 generations.

To emphasise the problem further, the evidence shows that San

Tin in fact has a master layout plan

layout plan with potential for development. The STDMC has spent over £2 Million Hong Kong

Dollars and six years in the development of the layout with

considerable encouragement

and participation from the

government, particularly through the design stages.

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