Dear Forumers,
Just to keep all informed of what transpired leading to publication
of my letter to the Forum Page in today's Straits Times
(28.12.2006), I reproduce below the emails exchanges with Forum
editor Mr. Kong Soon Wah below:-
Date: 26.12.2006
Dear Mr. Kong Soon Wah,
Many thanks for your reply. In compliance with your advice, I have
amended to said draft to below 400 words as attached and hope that
you will now publish it. Regards,
Date:- Dec 26, 2006
To: The Editor,
The Straits Times,
Dear Editor,
QUOTE"In your article Historic buildings no bar to progress
(Straits Times 13.12.2006), Mr. Kannan Chandran has correctly
pointed out that Heritage buildings should be viewed as assets,
not stumbling blocks to progress citing refurbished colonial
villas previously owned by the family of Straits Chinese tycoon Tan
Kim Seng as instrumental to the sale of 121 units within 36 hours
of soft launch of Ducess @ St Patricks.
In replying to a recent forum letter, Mr. Ler Seng Ann Director
(Conservation & Development Services ) has acknowledged the
need to balance that with economics, changing lifestyles and
expectations, needs of building owners and other factors.
However, in my view, such conservation success is mainly
attributable to the Land Acquisition Act allowing government to
acquire sites at market values as at 30 November 1973, Rent Control
Act, 2003 and Decontrolled Premises Act offering landowners
opportunities and financial incentives to conserve previously
rent-controlled properties.
As your correspondent Mr. Kalpana Rashiwala has pointed out in his
article Conservation targets newer buildings, published in the
Straits Times on 14.7.2006, architects have described the ongoing
conservation of prime commercial sites and iconic post-war strata
developments like Beverly Mai (The first condo built in 1974) and
Futura, (2nd condo built in 1976) etc. as Uphill Battle.
Yet, of late on 8.12.2006, URA has served notices to conserve yet
more prime commercial sites like Syed Alwi Road, Rowell Road,
Desker Road, Lembu Road, Jalan Besar. Millions of dollars of
property values will be wiped out upon conservation with some land
owners being unable to proceed with previously approved
redevelopment.
With 6,500 buildings already conserved, it may be timely to review
our conservation objectives and programs by asking questions e.g.
(1) Is this level of conservation enough ? (2) Land being rare and
expensive, how do we reconcile conservation with loss of
redevelopment potential and creation of jobs ? (3) Is there a need
to conserve more of the same type? (4) Compensation to those
deprived of approved redevelopment.
In the first phase of our conservation, buildings being conserved
were often old, dilapidated or even unsafe. Today, circumstances
are different and even if a conservation proposal is justified by
experts on specifics, there may be a need to reexamine overall
conservation needs and provide fair and equitable compensation to
land owners affected."UNQUOTE
Robert Teh Kok Hua
-----Original Message-----
From: Kong Soon Wah [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
STForum
Sent: Friday, December 22, 2006 4:28 PM
To: teh kok hua
Subject: Re: STRAITS TIMES' CLAIM OF OBJECTIVITY IN PUBLISHING
FORUM PAGE LETTERS - IS IT TRUTHFUL
Dear Mr Teh,
I have not rejected your letter of Dec 18. Your letter was way too
long. If you could cut it to 400 words, we would consider
publishing it.
Yours sincerely,
Kong Soon Wah
Forum Editor
