A few days after the Housing Development Board (HDB) put up notices to get rid of the resident-made garden at the rooftop of Block 395 in Bukit Batok, Mayor of the Southwest District Low Yen Ling announced that the garden would be transformed into a community garden instead.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday (26 Aug), Ms Low said that many of the residents at Goodview Gardens had reached out to her about the HDB notices that were put up calling for the removal of the potted plants at the car park rooftop by 12 September.

“To address the residents’ and HDB’s concerns, I convened a long meeting today with HDB, NParks and Chua Chu Kang Town Council,” she said, adding that she proposed converting Block 395A’s rooftop into a community garden for residents.

While the agencies were “convinced” of the benefits of a community garden and have agreed to the conversion, the “top priority” is to ensure that the garden is free of mosquito breeding sites.

As such, the potted plants that currently make up the garden do not have to be removed by 12 September, said Ms Low, who is also the MP for Chua Chu Kang GRC.

Ms Low added: “We will be working closely with HDB, NParks, CCK Town Council, as well as residents of Goodview Gardens, to transform the current space into a proper community garden that will allow residents to enjoy the therapeutic benefits of gardening, as well as the social and community interactions that the communal space will bring.”

“I hope this news will encourage Goodview Gardens residents to play their part in co-creating the green space they have hoped for, and also ensuring the garden is beautiful, clean and dengue-free, and that it will serve the interests of the Goodview Gardens community well.”

HDB put up notices on Monday for the removal of the “illegal” plants

The beloved rooftop car park garden was set up by residents of Blocks 383 to 395 at Bukit Batok West Avenue 5 over 17 years ago when they realised that the top level of the eight-storey car park was never used, reported The New Paper (TNP) on Wednesday.

Since 2004 residents of Goodview Gardens, mostly retired and elderly, slowly transformed the highest level of the car park at Block 395A into a garden oasis with blossoming flowers and a space for the community to socialise.

Over the years, residents have contributed many pots and planter boxes, growing not only flowers but vegetables as well. Currently, the plants and flowers cover the perimeter of the top level.

A resident who spoke to TNP, Mdm Shirley Cheng, shared how special the garden is to the residents.

“To us, this place is not just a garden. Residents come here to exercise, talk to one another and get some fresh air,” she said.

“In fact, when my grandson was a toddler, I would bring him here to look at flowers and play.”

Mdm Cheng, 67, also made a friend because of the garden, a fellow resident Mdm Fan Nyook Ying, 82, who started buying plants for the car park garden since she retired over a decade ago.

The 82-year-old said she became emotional when she saw the HDB notices on Monday (23 Aug).

“This place is special to me because I have grown so many plants here over the past 12 years. I even have a section just for vegetables that I use when I cook,” she said.

Mdm Cheng told TNP that she saw the notices by HDB pasted on a pole at the car park on Monday when she went up to the garden to tend to the plants.

In her six years of gardening there, the 67-year-old said that this is the first time she’s seen such a notice.

“I know this is not our property, but we see this garden as our second home, and it is just so sad that they have asked us to clear our items,” she told TNP.

The notice states the objects that make up the garden were “illegally placed” and that “illegal planting activities” were being carried out. It said the items would have to be cleared by 12 September, and that all objects left behind after that date will be deemed “unwanted”.

“They shall be disposed of without further notice given,” the HDB notice announced.

According to TNP’s report, the notice was put up following complaints from residents who were concerned about the garden being a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Another resident, Chng Rui Feng, started collecting signatures for a petition to keep the rooftop garden.

He said: “Many of the elderly folk who frequently come here are retired. Instead of staying at home all day, we prefer to tend to the garden, use the space to exercise and practice taiji. It has become a community.”

He added that they even put up notices last year to remind residents to remove bottles in the area and empty the water from the pot plates.

Another retiree, identified as Mr Tan, expressed his hope that the garden would be allowed to stay. He said that even though he doesn’t have any plants of his own there, it is a space for him to unwind, adding that children used to play in the garden before COVID-19 hit as well.

Mdm Cheng said: “This place is where many of us seek comfort. We have grown many flowers and made many friends here. It would be a pity to let that go.”

Netizens point out the irony of gov’t encouraging the green movement but demolishing gardens

As residents looked to petition the HDB to allow their garden to continue blooming, netizens on the TNP Facebook page expressed their support and called on the HDB to helped upgrade the car park garden into a proper community garden instead of removing it.

Others suggested that the government provide residents with a suitable location to replace their rooftop garden with a proper community garden.

Several people pointed out the benefits of a community garden in the fight against global warming and climate change, as well as a space for the community to gather and enjoy.

Others pointed out the irony of the government encouraging gardening and the green movement yet threatening to demolish a garden that residents had set up by themselves.

Even so, there were a few netizens who felt that the car park should be a car park, not a garden. One person said that it allowing the garden would simply create more work for the Town Council in keeping the area clean.

A few netizens focused, instead, on why it took the HDB so long to take action in the first place given that the garden has been there for 17 years.