Another wet market to close down

Sembawang residents unhappy over shutdown of its only such market

SEMBAWANG may soon be the next neighbourhood to lose a wet market - its only one at that.

Its 14 stallholders at the market in Canberra Road have been told to go by the end of this month.

This is because the master tenant, Sembawang New Market, is ending its lease with the Housing and Development Board, the owner of the market.

The space will probably be taken over by a FairPrice supermarket, pending approval by the HDB. The papers to transfer the tenancy to NTUC FairPrice were submitted a few weeks ago, and are still being evaluated.

Meanwhile, some residents in the neighbourhood are upset at the prospect of losing the wet market; stallholders there are also aggrieved over the short notice they have been given.

The situation there echoes that of the five other heartland wet markets which made the news this week.

The wet markets in Choa Chu Kang, Bukit Batok West, Serangoon and Pasir Panjang - among the minority here which are privately owned - also look set to go.

Supermarket chain Sheng Siong has exercised its option to buy them from property developer Heeton Holdings, with a view to setting up 'air-conditioned markets' there.

But those plans are now in question, because Heeton has yet to submit an application to HDB for clearance to sell the markets, although it has gone ahead and sent eviction letters to the stallholders there.

Although it owns the markets, it still needs the HDB's approval to sell them or to change the use for the space.

Over in Sembawang, if FairPrice gets the green light to run a supermarket on the wet market's site, it will have to fall in with certain requirements - such as timing its opening hours to suit residents' shopping needs and including a fresh market section to compensate for the lack of a wet market.

But this is cold comfort to some worried Sembawang residents.

Housewife Josephine Tan, 41, said: 'There is no other wet market in this area, and there are enough supermarkets already.'

Sembawang has at least three supermarkets, two of which are FairPrice ones.

Not all residents are against FairPrice's coming to Canberra Road. Property agent Alex Ng, 39, is cheered by the thought of having a bigger variety of products.

Just like the stallholders in the other markets, those in the Sembawang market are upset too. They said they were told of the impending closure only last week.

'Four weeks only, how to move out?' asked frozen food seller Mohd In Kutty.

But the spokesman for Sembawang New Market said that the stallholders had been verbally told about the move as early as last year.

Asked about this, the HDB said it shared the stallholders' concerns and had suggested to Sembawang New Market to extend the deadline to next month.

Source: Straits Times, 3 Oct 2009