Last Updated on 2023-04-12 , 10:14 am
A common gripe amongst Singaporeans is that maintenance work takes forever. The road work outside your house is always seemingly unending—is there really that much to fix?
This resident corner in Jurong suffers from the same fate—even after 28 long months, the corner is undone and possibly wholly abandoned.
For a country with such a fast pace of living, maintenance work seems to somehow lack efficiency.
Residents Unhappy With Uncompleted Corner
According to 78-year-old resident Mr Lu, the resident’s corner of his flat, located at 639 Jurong West Street 61, has been under construction for 28 months, but is still incomplete.
In an interview with Shin Min Daily News, Mr Lu revealed that the unfinished corner of the void deck causes disruptions to residents, who need to take detours to get past the area and endure construction noise.
He expressed that older residents in the area had always wanted a space where they could sit down and socialise, and were excited when they heard a resident’s corner was set to be constructed.
However, they did not expect that the wait would last more than three years.
“The corner has already been cordoned off for so long, and they suddenly stopped working on it in October last year,” he said in Chinese. “I heard there was a change in the contractor, so they stopped construction work.”
He observed that the stone tables and chairs on the construction site had already been modelled, but because construction work stopped, all the materials were abandoned in the site. When it rained, the soil inside would flow out with the rainwater, making the ground extremely dirty.
47-year-old housewife Ms Hu also expressed that because the corner was cordoned off, she had to take a detour when she wanted to access the rubbish dump or the carpark.
Another 53-year-old resident, known as Hassan, added that construction work was intermittent, and he did not know when work would take place and when it would be done. When work did take place, the construction noises resulted in disturbances to the residents.
A poster pasted outside the lifts by the West Coast Town Council on 23 March stated that the corner should be completed by the third quarter of 2023, with the delay due to reorganisation in the construction company. They also wrote that they had advised the contractors to take steps to minimise the inconvenience caused to residents, especially construction-related noise disturbances.
Stolen Chairs?
Since the corner was undone, Mr Lu took it upon himself to provide a space for his neighbours to socialise and connect with each other.
To do this, he purchased plastic chairs with his own money so that his neighbours had a place downstairs to sit, but the chairs were stolen.
Mr Lu had been living in that flat for more than ten years, and was, therefore, friends with many other residents.
“In the morning, more than ten of us will go downstairs to chat with each other,” he said.
The void deck only had one long bench, and two or three smaller chairs. Mr Lu felt that this was not enough, and hence spent $80 of his own money to buy ten plastic chairs to provide spots for his neighbours to sit. However, he had not thought that someone would steal these chairs, resulting in residents still needing to bring their own chairs downstairs.
“I was so excited for the completion of the resident’s corner, and even intended to prepare teapots for everyone to sit there and chat over tea,” he expressed.
Town Council Apologises
West Coast Town Council replied to Shin Min Daily News, apologising for the inconvenience caused to residents by the prolonged construction.
According to a spokesperson, the pandemic resulted in financial difficulties on the part of the construction company, as well as problems in obtaining manpower and materials needed for construction.
“The town council is working closely with the construction company to resolve these issues, and work is expected to resume by the end of the month,” they said.
They also sought the residents’ understanding and continued patience in the matter.
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