Letters to the Media

TOWN COUNCIL MANAGEMENT
How residents can help

Published in The Straits Times, 23 Oct 2009

Letter from Thomas Seow
Deputy Director (Housing)
Ministry of National Development

I REFER to the letter by Mr Paul Chan, 'Private tips on town council benchmarks' (Oct 14).

One objective of town councils is to facilitate residents' participation in local estate management. Under the Town Councils Act, at least two-thirds of town councillors are HDB residents from the town. Town councillors serve a two-year term.

Residents who are not town councillors can also play a key part in helping their town council do its work well. For example, they can serve on various subcommittees.

They can also contribute their views and suggestions to the town council office or via various feedback channels.

As for the Town Council Management Report, our intention is to start simple, focusing on key areas of estate management functions that are objective and measurable.

In addition, we encourage town councils to engage their residents and to make more information available to them. This is over and above what they are already doing - publishing newsletters, displaying their annual audited financial accounts, publishing their tender results on notice boards and so on.

Most town councils carry out estate checks on a regular basis. For example, most inspect all blocks on a monthly basis. We would like to clarify that Town Council Management Report inspections are conducted on top of these checks by town councils.

We also wish to clarify that the financial profile of residents in HDB estates and private estates are different. Town councils need to ensure that sinking funds that are accumulated over time are sufficient to fund all long-term, costly cyclical maintenance works.

The Government also provides subsidies to the town councils and such subsidies more than defray the goods and services tax payable on residents' service and conservancy charges.

Last updated on 23 October, 2009