Wonderful! The pages of the South China turn out to be an open forum for debate. I shall naturally be replying in kind. :-)
From today's South China, under the helpful strap line "All VIews on Air Quality Welcome":
I refer to La Grande Poobah's letter ("Wrong day for crucial meeting on air quality", January 27).
We take all views from the community seriously and would like to hear from them on how best the current air quality objectives should be reviewed and how a long-term air quality management plan should be developed. In choosing the time and day of the forum, we took into account the availability of the speakers, audience and suitable venue. We understand that any day we chose may not have suited everyone's schedule.
Nevertheless, the forum held on January 31 attracted some 200 participants. It seems the choice was largely acceptable though it may not be convenient for some.
For those who could not attend the forum we welcome their views and comments by e-mails at our website at http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/air/air_quality_objectives/air_quality_objectives.html.
Benny Y. K. Wong, assistant director (air policy), for director of environmental protection
Naturally I invite you all to submit your views to Benny and his cronies on the website post haste!
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2 comments:
200 participants - that says it all. In a city of 7 million people, all of whom have a direct interest in air quality, only 200 poeple were able to attend. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong answer!
Sadly the website to which the EPD points you doesn't have any way of actually giving feedback other than a generic email address.
When I was in the UK I used to do a lot of public consultation for local and national government and worked for a company that specialised in public consultation. The type of consultation that occurs in HK is about 20 years behind best practices.
I once tried to talk to the HK Housing Authority about a better mode of public consultation on a controversial redevelopment it was doing. The chief statistician refused to have anything to do with my new fangled ideas (tried and tested worldwide, including on the redevelopment of the WTC site in NY) and openly rubbished them at a board meeting.
It seems that the government culture in HK (URA et al) is one of actually being scared of public input.
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