Monitor | Officials have always hated Hong Kong's country parks

Hong Kong government officials have long suffered from a malignant combination of agoraphobia and chlorophobia - a terror of open spaces coupled with an irrational fear of the colour green.

Take our public servants and put them anywhere they are not surrounded by glittering shopping malls, grade A office towers and "luxury" property developments, and they break out in a cold sweat.

Worse, if there happens to be any vegetation around, they begin to panic. Their heart rates shoot up, they start to hyperventilate, their knees begin to tremble and they come over all faint.

Restored to normality again in the air-conditioned cocoons of their chauffeur-driven official cars, they shake their heads as they slowly recover and mutter: "It's no good, it'll have to go."

At least that's the only explanation I can think of for the government's long-standing animosity towards Hong Kong's 24 country parks.

Loved by the city's population as islands of natural beauty, havens of tranquility, and easily accessible playgrounds away from the urban turmoil of everyday life, Hong Kong's parks had 13 million "recorded" visitors last year, according to the government.