STREET WORKS BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

The Minister for Communications (Mr Mah Bow Tan): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

As I have explained before, this Bill repeals the existing Local Government Integration Act, or LGIA, and replaces it with a new Street Works Act, or SWA, to be administered by the LTA.

The existing LGIA was enacted in 1963 from the then Local Government Ordinance. The Act integrated certain functions of the City Council and the Rural Board with those of the Government. However, the City Council and the Rural Board no longer exist and their functions had either lapsed or been integrated with those of other Government agencies or statutory boards. A number of provisions in the LGIA are now outdated or obsolete. The Act is now mainly used by the Public Works Department for the construction, widening and maintenance of public and private streets and backlanes. A review of the LGIA was therefore initiated by the Ministry of National Development and PWD two years ago to bring the Act up to date.

Obsolete provisions including those which have been incorporated in other legislation will be removed, for example, those relating to trade effluent, the transfer of employees from City Council and the appointment of District Officers. New provisions have been added so that the LTA can more effectively and efficiently develop and manage roads and their related facilities.

Government will continue to decide on the acquisition of land for development purposes. The LTA will replace PWD as Government's agent for the purposes of road development, as approved under the Planning Act. New provisions have been incorporated to allow the LTA to carry out road improvement works within private land without acquisition. For instance, the LTA can carry out tunnel works underground without affecting ownership of the land above. Landowners who do not like this arrangement can request the Government to acquire their land.

To maximise the use of our road network, new provisions have been included to allow LTA to levy charges on persons or parties who occupy road space and cause traffic congestion and inconvenience to motorists. Such levies will ensure that persons or parties who need to make use of the road space will carry out their activities quickly occupying as little road space as possible and in the shortest possible time. The LTA will also be empowered to take action against any person found to cause damage to our roads.

Recently, the PWD has upgraded the walkways in the Civic District and the Orchard Road areas to give pedestrians a safe and pleasant walk along the roads. The LTA will continue with this task and extend the walkway upgrading programme to other parts of the island. To enable LTA to carry out this programme effectively, new provisions have been included in the SWA to allow LTA to improve walkways over private land without land acquisition. Landowners of shopping centres will also be allowed to participate in the walkway improvement programme so as to bring more shopping traffic to their premises.

Several new provisions will facilitate the roadworks to be carried out by the LTA. The road reserves will remain the property of the Government, but LTA will be allowed to enter road reserves to carry out minor improvement works. It would, however, be required to seek the Minister's approval for major works that require additional lands.

The existing LGIA allows PWD to recover from landowners the cost incurred from the construction of roads to open up new areas for development. However, the recovery of such charges can only be done when the accounts are finalised. By then, the properties may have changed hands. The practice has caused inconvenience to landowners, developers and also to purchasers in that the financial liability may not be clear during a property transaction. So, in the SWA, provisions have been incorporated to allow the LTA to recover the roadmaking charges progressively as and when they are incurred. The parties concerned in the transaction will then have a clearer picture of their financial liability.

In line with the Government's decision to have qualified engineers take on more responsibility, the SWA will have provisions to require structural plans for road elements to be certified by accredited and experienced structural engineers. The arrangement will ensure that the roads built by private persons will meet the safety and performance standards laid down by the LTA.

Finally, fines and penalties in the LGIA have been updated in the SWA. Three new fines will be introduced. They are for:

(a) failure by private persons to deposit within the time frame specified by the LTA the amount determined for their execution of street works;

(b) failure to comply with the order by the LTA to cease and remove works on public streets and make good any damages caused to these streets; and

(c) failure to comply with the notice by the LTA to stop activities causing damages to the public streets and make good any damages so caused. The LTA may compound any offences which are prescribed as compoundable under this Act or its regulations. It may, with the approval of the Minister, make any regulations to prescribe any offences which may be compoundable.

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 Mah Bow Tan].

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