Discovery Bay resident files ombudsman complaint over plan for full taxi access

Dana Winograd (left) and Kate Wade pose with the petition at Mong Kok Government Offices.

Photo: Jelly Tse A Discovery Bay resident has lodged a complaint with the city’s ombudsman over authorities’ handling of a proposal to allow unrestricted taxi access to the resort-style seaside community in Hong Kong.

A petition bearing 1,700 signatures from concerned residents has also been submitted to the Transport Department calling for proper public consultation and wider public communications on the measures.

Taxis have had limited access to Discovery Bay since 2014, restricted to the north plaza of the sprawling residential area developed by Hong Kong Resort Company on Lantau Island.

While there have been previous attempts at introducing more taxis into the area, such proposals have received similar pushback from residents who say they prefer a car-free environment removed from Hong Kong’s typical urban sprawl.

The latest plan would revoke existing taxi-prohibited zones in Discovery Bay, introduce four new taxi ranks in the neighbourhood and allow for point-to-point drop-off and pickup, according to a copy of a developer’s notice dated January 2026 and seen by the South China Morning Post.

But residents have told the SCMP that the latest attempt to expand taxi access has been pushed through without adequate consultation.

In the letter to the ombudsman, Dana Winograd, a Discovery Bay resident of 28 years, said she and other residents were concerned that the proposal had not been “handled appropriately” by the Transport Department.

Winograd, who is originally from Canada and has lived in Hong Kong for 30 years, wrote that she had been unable to ascertain from the department what constituted the minimum standards or requirements constituting an “acceptable public consultation”.

She also accused the department of having “effectively abdicated” its regulatory authority on the matter and that repeated attempts at contacting Hong Kong Resorts Company had gone unanswered.

She called on the ombudsman to assist in residents’ efforts to have the department refrain from approving the plan until “proper, transparent, and effective” public consultations were carried out.

Speaking to the SCMP, Winograd said: “What I’m starting to understand is one of our biggest problems with this whole process is that there has been no public consultation.

Residents didn’t know about it.” The expanded taxi access is part of the resort company’s “DB 2.0” blueprint.

Photo: Roy Iss

原文链接: 南华早报