November 30, 2009 by admin
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Written by Our Correspondent
Some Eunos residents have protested against HDB’s lift upgrading
programme in their estate by crossing out all the four options
given to them during a meeting over the weekend with HDB.
They are flat owners in Blocks 411, 415 and 417 in Eunos Road 5.
The new lift shafts built as part of a lift upgrading programme
last year ended up blocking their flats from sunlight and wind,
making their homes dark and hot.
The residents had taken issue with the layout and location of
the new lifts when the plan was first revealed in 2006.
Despite having numerous discussions with their MP Dr Ong Seh
Hong, the impasse remains unresolved.
HDB has proceeded to build the lifts with the new lift shafts
becoming an eyesore in the vicinity. They are still uncompleted due
to objection from the residents.
During a meeting last Saturday morning with HDB, some of the
residents surrounded HDB’s deputy director of upgrading programmes
management Chee Kheng Chye last Saturday morning, firing questions
at him.
The questions included why the lift shaft was built blocking
most of the front door and one bedroom unit, when in a brochure
given out to residents, the lift shaft had appeared different on
the floor plan. The diagram, explained Mr Chee, is schematic and
not drawn to scale.
Residents said the suggested changes were too minor to make a
real difference.
This is not the first time that HDB’s lift upgrading programme
has become embroiled in controversy.
A wheelchair-bound man by the name of Ryman Lim wrote in to
TODAY last week complaining that the design of the new lifts at his
Clementi flat is not wheelchair-friendly at all as all
residents still have to climb up or down a half-flight of stairs to
get from the corridor to the lift.
He got a cool response from HDB when he tried to feedback
his case to them:
“When I approached the HDB, I did not expect such an
indifferent response from them. The HDB insisted that the residents
voted for a lift landing of this design, and the vote was final,
with no special consideration to be given to wheelchair-bound
residents like myself,” he wrote.
[Source: TODAY's Voices, 5 November 2009]
The same deputy director Chee Kheng Chye replied three
weeks later on 26 November 2009 that “there is a small
number of blocks where direct lift access is not possible due to
site or technical constraints.”
He ended his letter without offering any concrete help or
support for the stranded resident:
“We empathize with Mr Lim’s situation, and seek his
understanding on the LUP solution implemented for his
block.”
[Source: TODAY's Voices, 26 November 2009]
Lift upgrading programme was introduced to rectify an
earlier design flaw by HDB whose lifts do not stop on every
level.
The upgrading will only go ahead if 80 per cent of the
residents living in the precinct voted for it. For some strange
reasons, few estates have rejected the lift upgrading programme so
far.
The government will pay the bulk of the upgrading with the
residents chipping in the rest, usually ranging from a few thousand
dollars to more than ten thousand dollars.
The Lift upgrading programme is often used by the ruling
party to threaten Singaporeans to vote for them during the
elections.
Residents living in opposition-held wards like Hougang and
Potong Pasir have been denied essential upgrading of their flats
for many years until lately.
