Eunos residents protest against HDB’s lift upgrading program
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Eunos residents protest against HDB’s lift upgrading programme
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.
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one word - the resident not interested to bear the cost.
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Lift upgrading woes
By Ang Yiying
Some of the 42 affected residents in Block 411, 415 and 417 in Eunos Road 5 refused to accept any of the four options offered over the weekend by the HDB in its latest bid to solve the problem. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
THE offer was laid on the negotiation tables by the HDB. But a group of Eunos residents who have been unhappy for years over an external lift shaft which blocks their homes are refusing to budge.
Some of the 42 affected residents in Block 411, 415 and 417 in Eunos Road 5 refused to accept any of the four options offered over the weekend by the HDB in its latest bid to solve the problem.
Some of them crossed out all the options with marker pens and wrote on the form that they were still not happy with the olive branches offered. Some want the offending lift shafts totally torn down instead.
These Eunos residents face a rather unique problem because of the way the three blocks were constructed.
Each block is in a U-shape and the two staircases are located at both ends of the U while existing lifts are located in the middle. Because odd-numbered floors do not share a common corridor - the building combines double-storey maisonettes with single story corner units - just upgrading the existing lift shafts was not sufficient to give all units lift access.
When the estate went through a lift-upgrading programme started in early 2008, the two additional lift shafts per block could not be built facing a staircase like how it is done with most other HDB blocks.
Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking...ry_460600.html -
Every method also can not.
A gondola may well suit them!
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I'm quite surprised this was even reported in the papers.
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If these blocks had formed some grouping - they could have voted in a candidate from the Alternative Party during the last election in 2006 (?)
That would have saved them all the hassle, and would have got the PAP grass-roots to work even harder for them.
Looks like the gerrymandering for the next election will have to sharpen the pencils to redraw the lines to absorb, or dilute these blocks if they are presently in either the super large Aljunied GRC or Marine Parade GRC - and when these are to be split up into smaller SMC for the next election.
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my area also getting lift upgrading leh
eunos so near to me..
why they protest
how come my side never protest
thats strange
maybe we got some free carrots?
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Originally posted by noahnoah:
my area also getting lift upgrading leh
eunos so near to me..
why they protest
how come my side never protest
thats strange
maybe we got some free carrots?
I heard all this lift upgrading programs can be quite secretive.
Tell us about your experience in voting for this program when your turn comes - like whether they give you a breakdown of numbers who oppose, who wants the lift and how much you need to pay etc.
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not everybody get suckled up to LUP
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Originally posted by Lin Yu:
not everybody get suckled up to LUP
Because it is not free.
We have to pay for HDB's design fault when they decided to build lifts that only stopped on 3 floors 40 years back.
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Originally posted by charlize:
Because it is not free.
We have to pay for HDB's design fault when they decided to build lifts that only stopped on 3 floors 40 years back.
No!
Actually it's an intentional design, because they had the foresight to know that they will charge us extra to correct the fault in the future and they will make a profit from it.
Always remember that PAP is forward looking, they have a crystal ball that looks ahead 50 years.
We have many wizards in the government, some make afew millions disappear every year, while there are those great wizards that make hundred of billions disappear at an instant.
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Originally posted by charlize:
Because it is not free.
We have to pay for HDB's design fault when they decided to build lifts that only stopped on 3 floors 40 years back.
No!
Actually it's an intentional design, because they had the foresight to know that they will charge us extra to correct the fault in the future and they will make a profit from it.
Always remember that PAP is forward looking, they have a crystal ball that looks ahead 50 years.