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ESTATE MAINTENANCE IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE
TOWN COUNCIL MANAGEMENT REPORT
At a recent dialogue session held to discuss whether maintenance issues should form part of the planned Town Council Management Report (TCMR), both HDB residents and town councillors agreed that the maintenance of HDB estates constituted one main essential function of town councils.
2 Participants felt that the indicators on maintenance issues in the TCMR should focus on areas that are objective and measurable. Rather than overstretching resources to assess many different aspects of maintenance, TCMR should focus on those that allow meaningful comparisons between town councils. Lift maintenance was highlighted as a key area. There were suggestions that the TCMR should track the lift breakdown rates.
3 Service responsiveness was another aspect discussed, with some participants suggesting that town councils be assessed based on their response time to residents’ feedback. However, there were also concerns that focus on speed of response times would translate into higher costs as town councils would need to hire more staff. It was pointed out that the degree of urgency for different maintenance issues would differ. For instance, lift breakdowns or other issues affecting public safety should take priority. There were also suggestions for town councils to strengthen communication on service standards, in order to better match residents’ expectations.
4 Similar to an earlier dialogue session on cleanliness of the estates, the participants recognised that residents play a key role in the proper maintenance of housing estates. For example, residents could help to reduce the maintenance needs of facilities through their proper usage and by caring for common property.
Dialogue Sessions
5 These views were shared by participants at the dialogue session, which formed the second of three such sessions organised as part of the multi-pronged public consultation on the TCMR framework. The details on the participants’ feedback and comments at the dialogue session on Maintenance are in Annex A.
6 Senior Minister of State for National Development and Education Ms Grace Fu, who chaired the dialogue sessions, said, "There were good takeaways from each dialogue session. Lift maintenance was cited as an important area that the TCMR should include. Participants agreed that some issues could be better addressed by enhancing communication between town councils and residents. In the course of the consultation, many HDB residents also developed a better understanding of town council’s work.”.
7 Feedback from the final dialogue session on Financial Management will be released when ready.
Further Consultations
8 MND/HDB is expanding the consultation outreach through online channels. Interested members of public can give their feedback at www.hdb.gov.sg/TCMR, or by clicking on the ‘Town Council Management Report’ banner on the HDB InfoWEB at www.hdb.gov.sg.
9 The TCMR is meant to provide HDB residents with objective information on key areas of town council management. It will comprise a common set of key indicators and the respective results of every town council, and will serve as an additional basis for informed discussion between residents and their town council about how their estates and living environment improve over time.
10 The multi-pronged TCMR consultation process was announced by MND and HDB in June this year, and as part of the consultation process, MND/HDB invited HDB residents and representatives from all town councils to three dialogue sessions in June and July 2009. The dialogue sessions sought views on the indicators to be included in the TCMR. Each dialogue session focused on a specific theme viz. Cleanliness, Maintenance, and Financial Management respectively.
11 Feedback received from the various channels will be taken into consideration in the development of the TCMR framework that is scheduled to be ready in Sep 2009. The results of the first TCMR is expected in 2010.
| Issued by: |
Ministry of National Development
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| Date: |
21 July 2009 |
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Annex A
Summary Notes of Town Councils Management Report Dialogue Session on Cleanliness
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S/N
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Issue
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Participants’ Comments / Feedback
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| 1 |
Including Maintenance in the Town Council Management Report (TCMR) |
Participants generally agreed that maintenance of the estate, in particular the maintenance of lifts, is one of the essential functions undertaken by a Town Council and should be included as part of the TCMR. |
| 2 |
Assessment of maintenance |
As it was not possible to measure all aspects, the indicators for maintenance in the TCMR should focus on being objective, fair and measurable e.g. lift breakdown rate.
To enhance objectivity of the inspections on estate maintenance, some participants suggested that town council staff could accompany the inspectors during the assessment so as to allow for feedback or clarifications on the defects spotted.
While there was suggestion was for residents, Residents’ Committee members, town councils and HDB to conduct the inspections together, others felt that the inspections should be done by an independent third party |
| 3 |
Public education on community involvement in estate maintenance |
Participants recognised that residents have a role to play in the maintenance aspect by not misusing the facilities. They could also deter vandalism by being the local surveillance themselves. There were suggestions for more programmes to be carried out to educate residents, to promote ownership and responsibility towards their own estates, and to manage their level of expectations of town council services and response time to different forms of feedback.
Some felt that the TCMR might put more pressure on town councils, but it is a good move to bring about greater community involvement. On the other hand, one participant felt that such a nationwide exercise is unnecessary and was contented as long as town councils have their own internal assessment. |
| 4 |
Residents’ Involvement |
To instill a sense of ownership in residents and motivate them to take greater responsibilities for the physical maintenance state of their estates, participants suggested engaging residents through community forums for local decision-making, such as selection of colour schemes for the block repainting works.
Participants also felt that a more effective way to motivate residents was to provide cash incentives in the form of S&CC rebates. For instance, town councils could give S&CC rebates to residents who kept their blocks/estates well maintained. It was also suggested to that residents could be involved by engaging them as town council’s “handymen” for repairs. |
| 5 |
Other possible TCMR indicators |
Participants suggested the inclusion of town councils’ response time to residents’ feedback as one of the indicators of TCMR. However, the participants also felt that quick response time would come at a cost and feedback on different issues presented different degrees of urgency. Response time was more important for critical maintenance problems concerning safety (e.g. lift breakdown) or wastage of resources (e.g. bursting of water pipes).
Due to the balance needed between response time and cost, there were suggestions for town councils to enhance communication with residents on their service standards so as to better match residents’ expectations.
One participant suggested timeliness in implementing the cyclical maintenance works by the town councils as an indicator in the maintenance aspect. |
| 6 |
Ensure Maintainability in Design |
Some participants opined that the HDB’s building design could have impact on subsequent maintenance of the buildings. It was therefore important to ensure long-term maintainability in HDB’s building designs. |
| 7 |
Issues relating to Town Councils’ operations |
Participants also brought up several other points on town councils’ operations/communications and made suggestions on how to improve them. The suggestions were:
- Gather feedback from residents and RC on their concerns and expectations of the maintenance of their estates.
- Deter vandalism to the estate facilities by carrying out more enforcement.
- Enhance visibility of maintenance works/services to residents so that residents know what the town council is doing. For instance, keep residents informed on the schedule of the planned and upcoming cyclical maintenance works, as well as the routine maintenance work going-on.
- Communicate with residents on the scheduled repair/ replacement works after receiving feedback on maintenance issues.
- Carry out preventive maintenance works to lifts (especially older lifts) to reduce frequency of lift breakdown.
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Last updated on 20 July, 2009
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