Seventeen town councils have been formed since the General Election 2020. This includes the new Sengkang town council.
Sengkang Town Council established
The inaugural Sengkang town council has been established since Sengkang town was built over 20 years ago.
The town includes the Sengkang Group Representation Constituency (GRC), which is an electoral division.
This is one of 17 town councils that have been formed after the General Election (GE) 2020, as announced by the Ministry of National Development (MND) in a press release on Thursday (30 July).
The Sengkang GRC was carved out from areas from Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, Punggol East Single Member Constituency (SMC) and Sengkang West SMC.
The newly-formed GRC was won by the Workers’ Party four-member team – Jamus Lim, He Ting Ru, Louis Chua and Raeesah Khan.
They won a vote share of 52.13 per cent.
17 new town councils, up by one from GE2019
Town Councils are autonomous legal entities chaired by elected Members of Parliament (MPs) of the constituencies. It was established in 1988 by the Town Councils Act.
A total of 11 town councils have been reconstructed as electoral divisions were redrawn and constituencies were merged.
The 11 are Ang Mo Kio, Bishan-Toa Payoh, Chua Chu Kang, Jalan Besar, Marine Parade, Marsiling-Yew Tee, Nee Soon, Pasir Ris-Punggol, Sembawang, Tampines and West Coast.
Five of the 17 town councils remain unchanged from GE2020 – Aljunied-Hougang, East Coast-Fengshan, Holland-Bukit Panjang, Jurong-Clementi and Tanjong Pagar.
For the town council of East Coast-Fengshan, it has been renamed to East Coast after Fengshan SMC was absorbed into East Coast GRC.
Town councils have 90 days to take over management of transferred areas
Under the Town Councils Act, town councils have up to 90 days from the date of the Order, 28 Oct, to take over the management of areas to be transferred.
Sengkang town council, in addition with the other 11 reconstituted town councils, can arrange with one another for an earlier hand-over date.
“MND encourages all Town Councils to work together to ensure a smooth transition, so that the needs of residents can continue to be served,” the ministry said in the statement.
