In a paper submitted to the North District Council in May, the administration of Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor proposed building the public housing flats, which would amount to more than one-third of the government’s annual target of 33,000, in the northernmost part of the site located east of Fan Kam Road, also known as the Old Course. The remaining redeveloped area, which would be of medium and high ecological value, would be used for conservation and public recreation.

The idea of redeveloping the city’s showpiece golf course was one of the most controversial plans suggested by the Task Force on Land Supply, Lam’s brainchild, that was later adopted by the then Exco to tackle the city’s acute shortage of land for housing. The plan was generally well-received by the members of the public, but drew the ire of the club members and business elites.

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The government leases the land to the Hong Kong Golf Club, which counts political and business elites among its 2,600 members, including Ip, who told the Post she did not hold a debenture. While serving on Lam’s Exco, Ip’s council colleagues Joseph Yam Chi-kwong, lawmaker Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung and Senior Counsel Ronny Tong Ka-wah also said they were members as part of disclosure requirements to prevent conflicts of interest.

Ip further argued the plan reflected double standards of the previous administration, saying: “It pledged to support the sports sector, but why didn’t it back the golf club? We already have fewer golf courses than our competitor Singapore and we cannot afford to lose one as an international city.

“The government has been saying it supports the sports sector and preserves cultural heritage. Then why is it preserving the west wing [of the former government headquarters in Central], which is unremarkable, while destroying a course with more than 100 years of history? I fail to see its grounds.”

A spokesman for the Development Bureau said that while it appreciated there were diverse views on the proposed development, it would be premature to take a definitive stance before the statutory procedures of environmental impact assessment and town planning were completed.

Surveyor Lau Chun-kong, who sat on a now-defunct land supply task force, said he found the golf course to be of very high ecological value during his recent visit there.

While stressing he was not advocating to retain the golf course, Lau said he would like to see the area preserved and open to the wider public instead of using it for densely built housing projects.

Another task force member, Professor Chau Kwong-wing of the University of Hong Kong’s department of real estate and construction, said that if new information from an environmental impact assessment suggested development was not advisable, “there is no reason to adhere to what was decided rigidly”.

Stanley Wong Yuen-fai, chairman of the Advisory Council on the Environment, who previously headed the task force on land supply, said it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the plan ahead of the council’s meeting on Monday.

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It was understood a new round of lobbying was under way to scrap the housing plan following the government transition.

But architect Vincent Ng Wing-shun, who also sat on the task force, said critics should not just focus on the 9 hectares of land that would be slated for housing, as the remaining land in the 32-hectare site would also be redeveloped as public space for recreation use.

He also pointed out that the suggestions made by the task force was the result of a large-scale public engagement and consultation exercise that should not be easily brushed aside.

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Ng highlighted the importance of continuity in terms of the government’s land supply policies. “It takes at least several years or more than a decade to plan lands and eventually build flats,” he said. “Flats will never be ready if every government reconsiders the policies endorsed by its predecessors.”

The golf course was also a rare piece of land that could be ready for the government in the short term to meet its housing target, he added.

Last week, former Legislative Council president and task force member Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, said no reason existed to shelve the government proposal, which had already reserved most of the site and used the land of the lowest ecological value for housing.

In his election bid, Lee pledged to boost the quantity and speed of housing supply in Hong Kong, and Chinese President Xi Jinping has called the task one of the most important facing the new government.