PARKING PLACES (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

The Minister for National Development (Mr S. Dhanabalan): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

The Parking Places (Amendment) Bill has two objectives:

(i) to appoint the Director-General of Public Works as the Car Parks Authority to administer the Parking Places Act; and

(ii) to enhance the powers of the Superintendent of Car Parks to enable him to deal more effectively with car parking offences.

Sir, the planning and regulation of car parks is an important component of road transport policy. The Public Works Department, as the road planning and engineering authority, is better placed to integrate the planning and control of car parks with traffic planning, management and operation of roads. My Ministry has therefore decided that the Public Works Department should take over the functions of the Car Parks Authority from the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

The first phase of the transfer was done on 1st September 1989 under the Planning Act, whereby the Director-General of Public Works was appointed as the Competent Authority to carry out the function of car park planning functions. Now, clause 3 of the Bill before us seeks to complete the transfer by appointing the Director-General of Public Works as the Car Parks Authority to administer the Parking Places Act. Under the Act, the Director-General of Public Works will be responsible for the regulation and control of all public and private parking places in Singapore.

Clause 3 of the Bill also enables the appointment of a public officer as the Superintendent of Car Parks. In addition, it empowers the Director-General of Public Works to appoint public officers and officers from statutory boards as Deputy and Assistant Superintendents of Car Parks to exercise powers under the Act. This is to enable these statutory boards to manage their car parks effectively.

Clause 5 amends section 7 of the present Act to make it clear that the Government and the Car Parks Authority will not be liable for any injury or death suffered by any person in any parking place.

Clauses 6, 7 and 9 of the Bill seek to increase the maximum composition sums and fines for various offences under the Act. These penalties, which were fixed in 1974, 16 years ago, have lost much of their deterrent effect as inflation has depreciated the value of the fines. Doubling the maximum amount of these penalties will restore their deterrent effect.

The Bill also proposes the following changes to enable the Car Parks Authority to administer the Act more effectively:

(1) Clause 8 of the Bill amends section 15 of the Act to empower the Superintendent to detain as well as remove any vehicle parked unlawfully in any car park.

(2) Clause 10 empowers the Superintendent to hold an officer of a company responsible for an offence committed by that company if the offence is found to have been committed with the consent or connivance of or to be attributable to any act or default on the part of such an officer. This is similar to section 131(2) of the Road Traffic Act. So it is not a new principle. For example, when a company car is caught parking illegally, the company will be informed of the parking offence by a Notice of Request for the driver's particulars. If the company fails to respond, a summons will be issued against any director, manager, secretary or officer of the company who is attributable to the offence.

(3) Clause 11 amends section 17 of the Act to enable parking notices to be issued by any duly authorised officer.

(4) A new provision under clause 12 makes it an offence to obstruct or hinder the Director-General of Public Works, Superintendent or any authorised officer in the discharge of his duties. The penalty for the offence is a fine of up to $2,000 or a 3-month imprisonment, or both.

Clause 13 is a consequential amendment arising from the appointment of the Director-General of Public Works as the Car Parks Authority. It empowers the Minister to allow the URA, HDB and other statutory boards to keep the car parking charges and fines collected by them in any public parking place maintained by them under the Act.

In conclusion, Sir, this Bill seeks to amend the Parking Places Act for a more efficient and effective regulation and control of public and private car parks.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Mr S. Dhanabalan].

Bill considered in Committee.

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Clause 1 -

The Chairman: The citation year will be changed to "1991". This will be done.

Clause 1 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clauses 2 to 13 inclusive ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Bill reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.