GUAN SOON AVENUE (Road closure)

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Mr Teo Chong Tee asked the Minister for Communications (a) why part of Guan Soon Avenue off Upper Changi Road, which has been used by the public as a right of way for several decades, has been allowed to be included as part of the land used in the construction of a church, thus depriving the public of using it and (b) why were the contractors allowed to mislead the public by their road signs which stated 'Road Temporarily Closed' when in fact they were closing the right of way to the general public permanently.

The Minister for Communications (Mr Mah Bow Tan): Mr Speaker, Sir, the section of road which the Member refers to is not a public road. It is a private road on land belonging to a private owner, in this case the Zion Presbyterian Church. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has not maintained nor safeguarded it as a future public road. Residents in the neighbourhood had, in the past, been using this private road as a short-cut to their destinations. However, the owner has confirmed that there was no right-of-way granted to other parties for use of the road.

When the owner submitted a development proposal involving the closure of this section of road, the LTA evaluated the traffic conditions and supported the proposed development.

LTA was unaware that the developer had used inappropriate information signs, as these were not authorised by LTA. LTA has warned the developer and contractor against using misleading signs in the future.

Mr Teo Chong Tee (Changi): Sir, may I ask the Minister, when the church made an application for use of this road as part of the church construction, whether the approving authority did take into consideration that there are several hundreds of households in the vicinity of Guan Soon Avenue which need to use the road and if the road was permanently closed subsequently, how would the closure affect the hundreds of residents who have been for several decades making use of this road daily as a right-of-way. In view of the current situation, how does his Ministry propose to improve the flow of vehicular movements in and around Guan Soon Avenue area as the number of people and vehicles using the roads nearby will inevitably increase?

Mr Mah Bow Tan: Sir, the owner submitted the development proposal some time in 1993. As is the normal procedure, the authorities would then make several investigations, including investigation into the traffic conditions. At that time an evaluation was carried out on the traffic conditions and it showed that motorists that were using the private road through that piece of land would not be unduly inconvenienced by its closure because there are other access roads nearby. Harvey Avenue which leads to Upper Changi Road is only 100 metres away. Access can only be taken through Jalan Angin Laut to Upper Changi Road and Simei Avenue. So there was no traffic justification to require the land owner to give up his land to build a public road.