June 16, 2015
JANE CHEUNG and AMIE CHENG
A Tung Chung advocate yesterday applied for judicial review over the construction of the third airport runway.
Tung Chung Future’s community development officer, Wong Chun-yeung, 21, filed the writ to the High Court.
Wong said the Executive Council approval of the Airport Authority’s three- runway system in March is unconstitutional.
Departing passengers will be charged HK$180 from next year and airlines 15 percent more to help fund the third runway, whose budget has ballooned to HK$141.5 billion.
The third runway may be completed by 2023 if construction begins next year.
Green Sense founder Roy Tam Hoi- pong, who accompanied Wong in filing the writ, said afterwards that there were three grounds behind the judicial review.
The first was about the distinction between Hong Kong and mainland airspace, as the third runway would share airspace with Shenzhen and violate Article 130 of Basic Law, which states Hong Kong “shall be responsible on its own for matters of routine business and technical management of civil aviation.”
The second and third rationales concern contraventions of Article 64 of the Basic Law, which states that taxation and public expenditure should be approved by the Legislative Council.
http://thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=4&art_id=158026&sid=44669750&con_type=1&d_str=20150616&fc=2