The URA Long-term Plan Review highlighted the Government’s strategy of building Inclusive and Close-Knit towns by improving connectivity and injecting amenities within neighbourhoods, and closer to homes.
Unlike older HDB estates or new BTO estates, certain neighbourhoods or precincts within Sengkang are currently underserved when it comes to the lack of coffee shops and everyday conveniences in their immediate neighbourhood.
Hence, the Sengkang Team has been actively exploring opportunities to bring greater F&B and commercial conveniences to our residents. For example, we studied the possibility of converting under utilised spaces such as unused Multi-Storey Carpark lots - as proposed by Sengkang MP Jamus Lim back in 2021 - and void decks into commercial establishments. However, I understand that technical limitations have rendered some of these proposals unfeasible.
During the 2023 Committee of Supply debate, in response to my call for the MND to address the lack of amenities within Sengkang, SMS Sim Ann noted that “URA and the relevant agencies are currently reviewing plans to further develop the Sengkang Town Centre”. Therefore, would the MND be able to provide a status update to these plans?
Moreover, with the recent decommissioning of Compassvale Bus Interchange, the site could be used to develop amenities such as an integrated community development. The empty plot of land next to CompassOne could also be better utilised for a permanent building, rather than merely for the occasional pasar malam, in the interest of maximising land use, while rejuvenating the wider Sengkang neighbourhood.
Specific to hawker centres, the NEA today manages 121 markets and hawker centres, and after decades of waiting, residents at Buangkok and Anchorvale can finally have their own hawker centre. I understand from the MSE that there will be five more hawker centres planned in the future. There is strong justification for another hawker centre in Sengkang to better serve the needs of residents in the central and eastern regions of Sengkang today, especially when the opportunity presents itself today. Not just as a standalone hawker centre, but an integrated development that enables us to maximise the highest and best use of our centrally located plots of land.
On improving connectivity, BTO developments -such as Rivervale Shores - include flats targeted at both seniors and families with children. Hence, the HDB should proactively work with the LTA to ensure that the surrounding infrastructure should be made barrier-free, such as by retrofitting nearby overhead bridges with lifts, ahead of the projects’ TOP. While there is unlikely to be many new BTO projects in Sengkang in future, given limited areas for development, for the benefit of future residents of future BTO estates, I hope that this can be included as part of tender requirements for contractors engaged by the HDB.
