OLDER PRIVATE HOUSING ESTATES (Upgrading of pavements and drains)

Mr Noris Ong Chin Guan asked the Minister for National Development whether the Government will expedite the upgrading of pavements and drains in older private housing estates, as damaged amenities contribute to the breeding of disease-carrying insects like cockroaches and mosquitoes.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for National Development (Assoc. Prof. Koo Tsai Kee) (for the Minister for National Development): Mr Speaker, Sir, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has a regular inspection and maintenance programme for all public roads and pedestrian walkways. Similarly, the Ministry of the Environment (ENV) carries out routine maintenance and improvement works for drains in public areas. These programmes also extend to those in private housing estates. LTA will repair roads and walkways and ENV will repair drains that are damaged or pose a hazard to public safety. ENV also ensures a high standard of public health by keeping vector populations, such as mosquitoes and cockroaches, at low levels.

The Estate Upgrading Programme (EUP) for private residential estates provides improvement works over and above the on-going maintenance works carried out by the various Government agencies such as LTA and ENV. Where possible, improvement works of Government agencies will be coordinated with those under the EUP to lessen inconvenience to the residents. We expect about three to five estates to be selected each year under the EUP. The Government will review the number of estates to be chosen and the programme budget, depending on the experience gained from each batch, support for the programme, and whether there are budget surpluses.

Mr Noris Ong Chin Guan: Sir, could the Ministry consider whether town councils should coordinate and be responsible for pursuing such improvement projects for private estates within their boundaries, so that priority could be given to estates in need and in an orderly fashion?

Assoc. Prof. Koo Tsai Kee: Sir, town councils' mandate extends to the maintenance of common areas. "Common areas", as understood under the Housing and Development Act, means the areas owned by HDB but managed by town councils for the benefit of HDB residents. So town councils have no mandate to manage roads, parks and drains in private estates.

Assoc. Prof. Toh See Kiat (Aljunied): Sir, I would like to ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary whether, because of the EUP that he mentioned, there would be a slow-down or more stringent criteria when non-EUP estates ask for improvements to their public facilities.

Assoc. Prof. Koo Tsai Kee: Sir, LTA and ENV have a regular maintenance programme for all private estates. In fact, NParks is also included as one of the agencies. So they have a regular maintenance programme but, of course, once in a while, if they have flooding and trees falling, they can contact the relevant agency to solve an ad-hoc problem.

The EUP is a programme provided over and above this routine maintenance programme. EUP is an enhancement to the private estates' ambience, and the EUP is something that the Ministry of National Development hopes to implement progressively for more estates over a period of time. So the EUP and the routine maintenance programme are two separate programmes altogether.

Mr Sin Boon Ann: Sir, I think the Senior Parliamentary Secretary may have missed the point raised earlier. A suggestion was made as to whether or not the Government would consider amending legislation to expand the scope of the Town Councils Act so that the private estates would also come under the management of the town councils.

Assoc. Prof. Koo Tsai Kee: Sir, I am not sure if the private estate residents would welcome that, because it is a different issue altogether. Town councils were specifically created to manage common areas. In many constituencies like Tanglin, for example - Mr Lew Syn Pau is not here - he hardly has any HDB blocks. I think there are only two HDB blocks, and his town council may not be welcomed in Nassim Park, Holland or Queen Astrid Park.

Mr Sin Boon Ann: Sir, the question was raised as to whether or not it would be more efficient for town councils to manage the upgrading of private estates and, therefore, for this purpose, whether or not the Town Councils Act should be amended at least to the extent of allowing town councils to coordinate and manage these improvement programmes.

Assoc. Prof. Koo Tsai Kee: Sir, the EUP is offered to the CCCs. The Advisers have been invited recently to nominate precincts for EUP upgrading. The CCCs can then nominate the town councils to act as their professional agency to improve these private estates. Indeed, in the case of the Serangoon Gardens EUP Committee, the CCC has nominated the town council to be the professional agency. So, yes, that arrangement is possible. But town councils do not have the mandate to manage private estates. They act on somebody's behalf, in this case, Serangoon Gardens EUP Committee.

Assoc. Prof. Toh See Kiat: Sir, I think the Senior Parliamentary Secretary also missed the point in my question. I was not talking about routine maintenance, because that has to be done before things go bad. Sir, the EUP is a limited programme, and not all estates are chosen. But some old estates may have certain areas that need to be improved, eg, drains that are collapsing or things like that. Would that kind of programme be slowed down because the focus is now on EUP?

Assoc. Prof. Koo Tsai Kee: Mr Speaker, Sir, that is not the case. To be fair, LTA and ENV look at the routine maintenance programme seriously and they will step in before these things happen. And EUP is something over and above that. We should not confuse the two. If the Member knows of any dilapidated drains or parks, maybe he could let me or the relevant Ministries know.