THE project consultant for the Lift Upgrading Programme for some Housing Board blocks near the Geylang Serai market has gone back to the drawing board.
It has to come up with a design solution that addresses the unhappiness of residents who say that the new external lift shafts have robbed them of their privacy, as well as a view, light and fresh air.
Those affected live in Blocks 411, 415 and 417, Eunos Road 5.
A meeting a week ago among the area's Member of Parliament, project consultant, HDB officers and affected residents ended with the consultant being given two weeks to flesh out a compromise solution and produce a mock-up.
Some of the residents have appealed against having external lift shafts since finding out three years ago where they would be sited. In June, they asked for the shafts, which have already been built, to be torn down.
The structures affect 14 of the 116 units in each of the three U-shaped, 13- and 17-storey blocks. As these blocks combine two-storey maisonettes with single-storey corner units, not every floor has a common corridor.
The HDB said in July that it went with external shafts because it was the only way to give full lift access to every unit.
The Straits Times reported then that the HDB was looking into addressing affected residents' concerns, but since then, the issue has remained unresolved.
The area's MP Ong Seh Hong said that at the meeting, he had told residents that their proposed design solution - to extend the floor of affected maisonette bedrooms and create new windows - was a no-go with the HDB and the Ministry of National Development for technical and cost reasons.
Noting that this proposed solution would have cost $80,000 or more to implement for each unit, he said the question was who was going to bear the cost of this design rectification.
The proposal from Dr Ong himself - to tilt the angle of the affected bedroom windows - won little support from the residents.
He then suggested at the meeting that the project consultant look into re-aligning part of the wall linking the lift shaft to the corridor.
Even as the consultant works on this, detractors have already spoken up.
Madam Low Lee Koon, 49, who lives in Block 417, said it will not do much to solve her problems: 'It's still a wall with some fins in between. It may help 10 per cent to 20 per cent, which is not much.'
Dr Ong has found himself in the delicate position of having to balance the interests of the unhappy residents - whom he described as a 'vocal minority' - against those who need new lifts.
Residents from the non-affected units hope to use the new lifts soon.
In Madam Khatijah Abdul Manap's case, having lift access to her home is a necessity, not a luxury. Aged 72 and mostly wheelchair-bound, she lives with one of her sons in a corner unit on the seventh floor of Block 417. They moved in three months ago.
Her daughter, part-time cleaner Samsiah Athan, 42, who lives nearby and was wheeling her home on Sunday, said: 'My mum has kidney problems. She cannot climb the stairs.'
A resident of an unaffected unit in Block 411, Mr Patrick Lim, 50, said it was important to address the ventilation and privacy concerns of the affected units.
'If you don't have a happy neighbourhood, it will affect everybody,' said Mr Lim, who runs a travel agency.
Dr Ong hopes the issue would be resolved in the coming weeks. He said that if a sensible solution were to be proposed, he hoped that residents would 'have the grace to accept it and move on'.
Asked what would happen if the proposal is rejected, he said: 'I don't want to pre-empt that. We want to reach a consensus sooner rather than later.'
Source, Straits Times, 6 Nov 2009
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