EPD appeals against Court of First Instance's judicial review decision on proposed public housing development at Fanling Golf Course
The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) today (December 30) filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal (CA).
A spokesman for the EPD stated that after conducting a detailed review of Court of First Instance (CFI)’s ruling with the legal team, the department cannot agree with parts of the rulings and has therefore decided to appeal. The grounds for appeal are as follows:
The Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance (EIAO) clearly stipulates the mechanisms and timelines for public consultation, appropriately balancing the needs for public participation and project development certainty. The CFI’s judgment essentially requested for additional public consultation which is beyond the scope of the statutory framework established by the EIAO, which would make it impossible to reasonably conduct the entire environmental impact assessment process normally and would cause continuous delays, creating detrimental impacts and uncertainty on project development, contrary to the legislative intent of the EIAO.
The ruling would have significant systemic impacts on ongoing and future environmental impact assessments, in particular, it may lead to serious delays in development, operation and execution of the development proposals.
The EPD decided to appeal to the CA aiming to clarify the legitimate and practicable interpretation of the relevant legislations to ensure the certainty, rationality, and operability of the legal framework, as well as the specific implementation of the EIAO processes.
Notes exchange service and electronic lai-see for Chinese New Year
The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
As the Chinese New Year draws near, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the three note-issuing banks (The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited and Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited) today (January 2) announced that new notes and good-as-new notes, i.e. used notes which are in good condition and suitable for use as lai-see, will be available for exchange at branches of the three note-issuing banks from January 14 (Tuesday) to January 28 (Tuesday).
The HKMA encourages the public to use electronic channels including the Faster Payment System available via online or mobile banking, or other e-wallet services for giving lai-see. Giving electronic lai-see is simple and convenient, and will contribute to sustainable development by reducing the usage of physical red packets and banknotes. Major banks and electronic payment operators will encourage giving electronic lai-see by various promotional programmes. The public may refer to the details of these programmes as and when announced by banks and operators.
The three note-issuing banks will put in place appropriate measures to facilitate the notes exchange, including:
(1) |
Advancing the opening hour to 8am on the first 3 days of the service period, i.e. January 14 (Tuesday) to January 16 (Thursday), and dedicating the aforesaid additional operation hours, i.e. 8am to 9am, exclusively for providing the notes exchange service; |
(2) |
Offering online booking service for both new notes and good-as-new notes starting from January 7 (Tuesday), details of which will be announced by individual note-issuing banks within next week; and |
(3) |
Putting in place crowd management measures such as distributing physical tickets and implementing queue management when needed. |
Members of the public who desire to use cash for giving lai-see may wish to check for any remaining stock of new notes or good-as-new notes at home before going to a bank. Also, there is no need to rush to exchange for new notes and good-as-new notes during the first few days of the service period as banks will ensure the supply of these notes throughout the service period.
