The High Court has extended a temporary suspension of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) report that would pave way for the construction of public flats on part of the Fanling golf course, pending a ruling on a judicial challenge that is due next year.

The High Court had earlier decided that it will hear in May 2024 the Hong Kong Golf Club's bid to overturn the government's approval of the EIA report, which would set the stage for public flats to be built on 9.5 of the 32 hectares of land that the government is recovering next month.

Judge Russell Coleman agreed with the club that the EIA had failed to take into account 80 old, valuable trees on the golf course, which would make large-scale development in the area extremely difficult.

In his ruling on Thursday, the High Court judge said the club has "strong merits" in its criticism of the report.

"The old course as a whole is correctly recognised to be of important cultural heritage. It is at least a strong argument to say that building residential property on part of the course will not have an 'undetermined impact', as the impact is readily determined. The impact is that the integrity of the old course as a whole would be lost," he noted.

Judge Coleman also said the club had "expressly identified" that there are potentially registrable old and valuable trees in its submission, which was not addressed by the authorities.

"It seems to me to be strongly arguable that there was a failure to advise the [Director of Environmental Protection] of the existence of about 80 potentially registrable [old and valuable trees]," the judge said.

"The proposed locations of at least eight of 11 intended housing blocks, as well as the proposed transport interchange and special needs school, apparently partly or completely overlap with locations where potentially registrable [old and valuable trees] now stand."

The judge noted that granting an interim stay of the government's approval would "mark the requirement to preserve the site to cater properly for all possible future action that may be taken", should the report be quashed.

"There is a real risk of serious, potentially irreversible, damage to the environment of the site – including as to its ecology and cultural heritage. Those are also matters of wide public interest," he noted.

The order would not delay the development project, as no significant ground works or construction were planned until the end of 2024, he added.

The golf club, for its part, said it welcomes the court’s decision to preserve the status quo until its judicial review application is determined.

The government also said it respects Thursday's decision, while stressing that it will take back 32 hectares of land on September 1 as scheduled.

It also said the Town Planning Board will continue with its statutory procedures.