The Electric New Paper :
Road built to ease congestion from foreign workers' dorm at Serangoon Gardens, but residents now say:
Why spend $2m on road?
THEY didn't want a workers' dormitory in their estate and petitioned the Government against it.
By Desmond Ng
16 August 2009
THEY didn't want a workers' dormitory in their estate and petitioned the Government against it.
The Serangoon Gardens residents complained, citing reasons from potential social problems to security issues in their estate.
They also pointed out that with vehicles fetching workers to and from work, there would likely be traffic congestion.
So a 400m slip road - costing $2 million - to bypass the estate was built.
And what do the residents think of it?
Madam H S Tan, 61, spoke for most when she questioned if there was a need to spend so much money on a road, when a simpler solution would be to relocate the temporary dorm elsewhere.
The retiree added: 'It doesn't make sense. Why spend the extra $2 million when you could use the money to furnish other disused schools elsewhere to house the workers?
'Why not convert this school into a bazaar, or even an international school?'
Another resident, Mr Gerald Lim, 48, said that while the new road will help to divert traffic congestion going into Serangoon Gardens, especially during peak hours, it's a 'small respite', because 'the dorm will still be there'.
'There's no point discussing about the dorm because nothing is going to change,' said the businessman, whose family has lived there for about 10 years.
The access road - located right after the CTE exit at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 - opened earlier this month with little fanfare.
The dorm - a retrofitted school - has been slated to open in October. It will house male and female workers from the manufacturing and services sectors.
Many of the workers living in the dormitory will probably come from the hospitality and healthcare sectors.
They may include Chinese nationals, Malaysians and Filipinos.
Maxi Consultancy has been appointed to operate the dorm and will start retrofitting the school this month, according to a Straits Times report on 15 Jul.
The operator will provide a range of facilities, such as a mini-mart and canteen to minimise the need for the workers to access amenities outside the dormitory.
Shuttle buses will transport the workers to MRT stations during weekends and public holidays.
Residents whom The New Paper spoke to were surprised that the access road was completed so quickly - in under 10 months - after the idea for it was announced by the Ministry of National Development (MND) last October.
Complaints
The road may be completed, but the complaints remain, including issues of security and safety, rowdy behaviour, competition for the use of common facilities and yes, traffic congestion.
Some residents had pointed out that Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 is already jammed during the morning peak hours, with motorists using it to avoid the electronic road pricing charges on CTE.
Having more vehicles along that road will only worsen the situation, they said, according to a Straits Times report last October.
Madam Tan, whose family has lived in the estate for over 20 years, said: 'It's not that we're trying to be high and mighty here but with the dorm right outside our houses, there will be some social problems.
'And when that happens, who has to deal with it?'
Retiree Mr K C Liew, 60, still fears that the property value of his terrace house will fall once the dorm opens. He has lived there for about 10 years. 'The security issue is still there,' he said.
There are about 4,000 households in Serangoon Gardens.
Residents of this ageing estate of landed properties first heard of the Government's plan to site the dorm in their neighbourhood last September.
Some 1,600 of them signed a petition against the dorm and gave it to National Development
Minister Mah Bow Tan.
The Ministry said a month later that it would still go ahead to convert the disused school - former Serangoon Gardens Technical School - into a dorm, but the residents' concerns would be considered.
For starters, the dorm will accommodate 600 workers at most in the beginning- any increase in capacity after that is subject to the approval of the MND.
As far as numbers go, it's certainly not the biggest.
For example, Avery Lodge, a six-storey foreign worker dormitory in Jurong, can house up to 8,000 workers, according to a Straits Times report in April.
The Serangoon Gardens access road was included in the plans to ease traffic congestion and to reassure the residents there that their estate would not be overrun by foreign workers.
Access to the dorm would also be limited via one gate, and security guards would be hired to patrol the site.
The site boundary will also be pushed back to create a buffer between the dorm and the housing estate.
After these measures were announced, some residents were still unhappy.
Some had complained about the possible noise and pollution from buses that will be plying on that road.
Others noted that none of the solutions tackled the basic concern - that of residents having to deal with 600 new foreign dwellers coming into their estate.
Blur motorists turn into slip road despite 'No Entry' sign
THIS new two-way road was supposed to alleviate traffic congestion into Serangoon Gardens.
But the slip road - located after at the CTE exit to Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 - appears to be causing some confusion among drivers.
Some drivers, wanting to exit into Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1, have mistakenly turned into the slip road, which is for authorised vehicles only.
When The New Paper was at the access road on Wednesday afternoon, we saw two cars making wrong turns into this slip road within a span of 10 minutes.
Madam H S Tan, a retiree, said she made a wrong turn there last week because of inadequate signage.
This despite a 'No Entry' sign with a 'Except Authorised Vehicles' sign below.
Madam Tan lives at Tai Hwan estate, just next to the dormitory.
'It's situated too close to the expressway and there are no signs to indicate that it doesn't lead into Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1,' she said.
'I've seen many cars making wrong turns into that road.'
Another resident, Mr Thomas Lim, 56, said: 'It's dangerous. I've seen cars braking suddenly because they've turned into the wrong road.
'What if another car was following close behind?'
- Desmond Ng
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
THE STRAITS TIMES
Feb 17, 2009
Goodbye to mall at Serangoon Gardens
Over 100 people gather to bid FairPrice outlet farewell; revamped mall ready by 2010
By Jessica Lim & Leow Si Wan
FOR 35 years, Serangoon Gardens residents have been shopping at the FairPrice supermarket at the Serangoon Gardens Village complex.
They are so familiar with the place that they know the names of all the staff, give them Chinese New Year cookies and souvenirs from overseas, share recipes and even linger after grocery trips for lengthy chit-chats.
But those days are over - albeit temporarily - as the mall was shuttered earlier this month. In an unprecedented move, the FairPrice supermarket chain staged a farewell party yesterday for staff and customers in which more than 100 people showed up.
Cameras clicked, shrieks rang out, tears flowed, and at the end of the two-hour event, all present joined in for a chorus of Auld Lang Syne.
Apart from throwing the party, FairPrice took another unusual step: It will pull out all the stops to help residents sort out their grocery needs till the supermarket returns next year.
It will launch a free shuttle bus which will take passengers from five pick-up points in the neighbourhood to the Hougang Point FairPrice outlet, a 20-minute drive away.
The chain will also widen the selection of food available at its FairPrice Express store at the Esso station along Lorong Chuan to help residents out, said FairPrice managing director Seah Kian Peng.
The moves could not come sooner for residents affected by the closure of the supermarket, which opened in 1974.
'There is no other supermarket nearby,' said retiree Sally Tan, 67, who lives a 10-minute walk away from the Serangoon Gardens Village complex at Portchester Avenue, where the store used to be.
'Now I have to lug heavy bags of rice back from Ang Mo Kio.'
Along with the supermarket, about 30 other shops and eateries were closed as the mall within which they were housed, and the old Paramount Theatre will be renovated.
Businesses in the area said the closure affects them. Some said customers from all around the island used to patronise the mall because it was the centre of the laid-back culture of Serangoon Gardens, with cafes and convenience stores.
With it gone, takings at nearby shops have dropped. The owner of Serangoon Gardens Hainanese Roasted Chicken & Duck Rice, MrLeong Mun Chong, 53, said business has fallen by 40 per cent since the mall shut.
Mr Leong, who used to sell 100 plates of chicken and duck rice daily, said: 'In the past, people would go to the supermarket to shop, then to my stall to eat. Now they don't even come.'
But other retailers in the area said business was fine. The Cold Storage Speciality outlet at Serangoon Garden Way has seen an 'increase of more than 20 per cent in customer count' since the FairPrice outlet closed, said its spokesman.
Store owners at the wet market have also seen their business rise.
'This is a chance for us to get more customers,' said vegetable store owner Jimmy Koh, 36.
'But I wish there was no shuttle bus to take the customers away from Serangoon Gardens.'
Refurbishment work on the new mall will start next week, said developer Edmund Chye, 46, whose late father owned the Paramount Theatre, which was located at the site.
The $40 million revamp will see a spanking new building that will be opened by the third quarter of next year, and will include a new FairPrice outlet and a DBS Bank. The other tenants are being finalised, said Mr Chye.
Feb 17, 2009
Goodbye to mall at Serangoon Gardens
Over 100 people gather to bid FairPrice outlet farewell; revamped mall ready by 2010
By Jessica Lim & Leow Si Wan
FOR 35 years, Serangoon Gardens residents have been shopping at the FairPrice supermarket at the Serangoon Gardens Village complex.
They are so familiar with the place that they know the names of all the staff, give them Chinese New Year cookies and souvenirs from overseas, share recipes and even linger after grocery trips for lengthy chit-chats.
But those days are over - albeit temporarily - as the mall was shuttered earlier this month. In an unprecedented move, the FairPrice supermarket chain staged a farewell party yesterday for staff and customers in which more than 100 people showed up.
Cameras clicked, shrieks rang out, tears flowed, and at the end of the two-hour event, all present joined in for a chorus of Auld Lang Syne.
Apart from throwing the party, FairPrice took another unusual step: It will pull out all the stops to help residents sort out their grocery needs till the supermarket returns next year.
It will launch a free shuttle bus which will take passengers from five pick-up points in the neighbourhood to the Hougang Point FairPrice outlet, a 20-minute drive away.
The chain will also widen the selection of food available at its FairPrice Express store at the Esso station along Lorong Chuan to help residents out, said FairPrice managing director Seah Kian Peng.
The moves could not come sooner for residents affected by the closure of the supermarket, which opened in 1974.
'There is no other supermarket nearby,' said retiree Sally Tan, 67, who lives a 10-minute walk away from the Serangoon Gardens Village complex at Portchester Avenue, where the store used to be.
'Now I have to lug heavy bags of rice back from Ang Mo Kio.'
Along with the supermarket, about 30 other shops and eateries were closed as the mall within which they were housed, and the old Paramount Theatre will be renovated.
Businesses in the area said the closure affects them. Some said customers from all around the island used to patronise the mall because it was the centre of the laid-back culture of Serangoon Gardens, with cafes and convenience stores.
With it gone, takings at nearby shops have dropped. The owner of Serangoon Gardens Hainanese Roasted Chicken & Duck Rice, MrLeong Mun Chong, 53, said business has fallen by 40 per cent since the mall shut.
Mr Leong, who used to sell 100 plates of chicken and duck rice daily, said: 'In the past, people would go to the supermarket to shop, then to my stall to eat. Now they don't even come.'
But other retailers in the area said business was fine. The Cold Storage Speciality outlet at Serangoon Garden Way has seen an 'increase of more than 20 per cent in customer count' since the FairPrice outlet closed, said its spokesman.
Store owners at the wet market have also seen their business rise.
'This is a chance for us to get more customers,' said vegetable store owner Jimmy Koh, 36.
'But I wish there was no shuttle bus to take the customers away from Serangoon Gardens.'
Refurbishment work on the new mall will start next week, said developer Edmund Chye, 46, whose late father owned the Paramount Theatre, which was located at the site.
The $40 million revamp will see a spanking new building that will be opened by the third quarter of next year, and will include a new FairPrice outlet and a DBS Bank. The other tenants are being finalised, said Mr Chye.
Madam Lim Neng Eng and her maid thanking FairPrice staff member Lye Ah Moiu. ST PHOTO: WANG HUI FEN
limjess@sph.com.sg
siwan@sph.com.sg
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