I THANK Ms Elsie Tay for her letter, ‘Residents not told’ (Oct 16). Void decks are part of the common property owned by HDB. They are generally used for social and community facilities, such as childcare centre, residents’ committee centre, senior activity centre or kidney dialysis centre, for the benefit of the community.
To meet the evolving needs of the community, facilities like the new childcare centre at Block 339 Clementi Avenue 5 are added after consulting the authorities and local grassroots organisations.
Residents were told of the construction of the facilities via notices posted at the lift lobbies before the works were carried out.
The purpose of HDB’s polling exercises for the Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP) is to obtain residents’ consensus on the co-funding of upgrading cost by them. In the case of construction of new social or community facilities at void decks, no co-payment is required of residents. There is also no impact on service and conservancy charges due to the removal of void deck space of a block, because it is only a small part of the overall common property.
Ng Leong Keng
Deputy Director (Policy & Planning)
Housing & Development Board
Source: Straits Times, 3 Nov 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment