By Chew Kay Hak
There had been a very serious breached of safety in my estate at Seletar Springs Condominium and I had written numerous times to the various government agencies asking them to act on it. But over the years, despite my best effort, they are just pushing responsibility from one agency to another.
Finally, through my MP Intan, they had replied that there is nothing they can do about it. It’s no different from the Sim Lim Square saga where there is nothing the police can do over the years to these rogue shops, but yet, if the police wanted to, there is actually something they can do. It’s just that it’s 20 years late.
The Building Construction Authority (BCA) wanted the power to issue a temporary occupancy permit, but yet don’t want the responsibility to enforce any illegal alteration which compromise safety. They had constantly pushed the matter to be self-managed under the Building Maintenance & Strata Management Act, but does that include violation of regulation and safety rules which is under their responsibility of vetting the drawings?
Seletar Springs Condo parkingFor the Land Transport Authority (LTA), it’s good that there are various colours for parking lots. White is for everybody, Red is for season and now, there is another which is Black. What is Black for? Seems to be for “no government”.
I had written to tell LTA on numerous occasions that the Management Corporation Strata Title (MCST) had painted the white parking lots black, but yet allowed cars to parked there. LTA claimed that it’s not within their jurisdiction.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) inspected the place, but yet, their inspection is superficial. Their first inspection is only to assure that the road is 4.5m wide, but under the Fire Code 2013, for any dead end fire engine accessway that exceed 46m, turning facilities must be provided. The dimension for the 24 tonnes pumper is 15m x 15m while that of 30 tonnes pumper is 19m x 20m.
I had repeatedly requested to meet them when they came for the inspection so that I can share my findings with the officers, but yet they ignored it. Does the turning facilities comply with the Fire Code 2013? What is the point of coming many times when they had clearly overlook the Fire Code requirement?
Editor’s note: The picture provided by the reader seems to indicate that the illegal lots are within the condominium premises, in which case LTA might be right in saying they have no jurisdiction.

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