Tampines Town Council gets full marks in two of four areas assessed
By Joanne Chan, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 22 November 2009 1641 hrs

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SINGAPORE: The Tampines Town Council released a snap shot of its Town Council Management Report on Sunday.

Data collection from all 16 town councils in Singapore began last month and Tampines is the first to reveal preliminary results.

About 10 percent of the 625 HDB blocks in Tampines have been assessed so far.

The Tampines Town Council received mostly "level one" - the highest level achievable - for half of the four areas assessed.

It faired well for lift performance and arrears management.

There were few lift breakdowns and less than 30 percent of households owed more than three months' worth of town council fees.

However, Tampines received the average rating of "three" for estate maintenance, and a "two" for estate cleanliness.

The indicator for estate maintenance is the average number of defects, such as broken tiles and spoilt lightbulbs, found per block.

Speaking at a town hall forum on Sunday, National Development Minister and adviser to the Tampines Town Council, Mah Bow Tan, said the estate should strive towards "level one" for all the areas.

But he added that how well an estate fares does not depend on the town council alone. For example, residents have a role to play too when it comes to keeping the estate clean.

He said: "Cleanliness is not only a matter of how many cleaners we deploy, how fast the cleaners work, how efficient the cleaners are...the cleaner can be very efficient, but if the residents continue to litter or some residents are very prone to littering or non-civic conscience when it comes to littering, then that particular block or that particular part of the estate will be very dirty."

The first Town Council Management Report covering all estates will be released in the second quarter of next year.

There are 16 town councils across Singapore managing some 900,000 flats.

14 are run by the ruling PAP and two by the opposition - the Workers' Party in Hougang and the Singapore People's Party in Potong Pasir.


- CNA/ir