The demonstration came after the earlier announcement by the Metro Town Owners Committee to oppose the government’s plan to use Area 132 in Tseung Kwan O by reclamation to accommodate several public facilities, including a refuse treatment plant and a cement plant.

Less than a hundred participants braved the rain this morning for the protest under the patrol and observation of about 30 police officers. Demonstrators were required to wear numbered lanyards and were barred from wearing masks.

Cyrus Chan, one of the march organizers, said demonstrators had communicated with police on their promotional materials and slogans. Officers earlier had told him that participants should not wear all black outfits, he said.

The demonstration started with a gathering in a park next to Tiu Keng Leng Sports Centre at 11 am. Participants chanted slogans against the reclamation project as they marched in the rain with banners and finished before 1 pm at Tseung Kwan O South Landing.

Organisers said that around 80 people joined Sunday's protest.

Responding to the protest, the Development Bureau said the project was intended to "support the daily needs of the community". It said it would "respect the right to freedom of expression" and would study the possibility reducing the scale of the land reclamation.

It is one of the first demonstrations to be approved since the enactment of the national security law in 2020.

Before that, a demonstration scheduled on March 5 by the Hong Kong Women Workers' Association was cancelled at the last minute despite obtaining a letter of no objection from the police force, as a police spokesman said some unspecified "violent groups" might join in.