CLOSURE OF PUBLIC SWIMMING COMPLEXES

CLOSURE OF PUBLIC SWIMMING COMPLEXES:

(Alternative plans for premises): 11.

Mr Seah Kian Peng asked the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports given that there are four public swimming complexes which have been closed by the Singapore Sports Council for more than five years and there have been no alternative plans for them thus far (a) whether there is a specific date for these premises to be returned to the Singapore Land Authority for redevelopment purposes; and (b) whether the Government has also considered the opportunity costs for such long closures.

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The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (Mr Teo Ser Luck) (for the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports): Sir, the four public swimming pools were closed because they were severely under-utilised. The Singapore Sports Council (SSC) usually tries to find alternative uses for closed pools. SSC has successfully leased two previously closed swimming complexes to private sector operators. One is being used as a swim school, while the other for hockey.

Despite multiple efforts, SSC has not received any viable proposals for the four closed swimming pools.

SSC will now be initiating a final Request for Proposal (RFP) for the four swimming complexes. Should this exercise fail to generate feasible options for alternative sports uses, SSC will return the premises to the Singapore Land Authority (SLA).

Mr Seah Kian Peng: Sir, I believe the Senior Parliamentary Secretary did not answer my last question in my original oral question. In addition to that particular query, given that they have been under-utilised for several years and if SSC has no better plans, I would suggest that they be returned to SLA for better utilisation.

Mr Teo Ser Luck: Sir, we have worked on a few different approaches. First, we actually tested out the market in the private sector to see if anybody would be interested to assume the lease for the public swimming pools, to either use it for swimming purposes or other alternative sports uses. Secondly, SSC has also engaged the community leaders or the grassroots leaders on the ground to look for other alternative uses. We have gotten feedback from them and they have also agreed that with all the different proposals, maybe we should just make

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another effort quickly to send out the RFP to the market and see if any other private operators might be interested to assume ownership. And if such exercise actually fails, we will return them to SLA immediately.

Mr Seah Kian Peng: Sorry, the Senior Parliamentary Secretary did not answer my question (b).

Mr Teo Ser Luck: Whether the Government has also considered the opportunity costs for the long closure? We have certainly considered the opportunity costs, that is why we are quickly trying to look at other alternative uses as well as engage the community and also the private sector, in order to see what can be done. If it cannot be done, we will quickly return it back to SLA. I think the lapse of the five years is a process where we had to review initially why it was severely under-utilised and to look at alternative uses. So we went through the process and now we are looking at making a last effort to do it. We will subsequently return them to SLA if the exercise fails.