Residents in Thomson are upset over plans to build a funeral parlour in the area and they expressed their unhappiness to the Transport Minister on Sunday.
Minister Raymond Lim was holding a dialogue session with the residents after his community visit to the Thomson Division.The session almost got derailed by a lively exchange on the intended building of a funeral parlour in Sin Ming.
Residents asked why the URA and HDB want to build another funeral parlour in the area when there are already many funeral parlours in the area.
They also wanted to know how this would adversely affect the prices of their houses and whether the government would compensate them for the drop in property prices.
In fact, the issue has been brewing for months now.
Residents did meet URA representatives but they were disappointed.
One resident said: "When they tell me that the meeting was like something (that has been) finalised, (it) reminded me of the show 'Just Follow Law'. Somebody upstairs say, build it there, so build it there. If this is something so important in Singapore, why there? Why not Orchard Road area?"
Another resident said: "I agree when he (URA representative) said that as a result of ageing population, we needed more funeral parlours; (it) made sense.
URA plans to build a funeral parlour on the empty plot of land (foreground)"What the residents are against is: why Sin Ming? Are we now creating the area into a funeral hub? He said, 'having such a beautiful facade is going to help'.
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Thomson residents upset over plans for funeral parlour in their backyard
"Another shocking thing I hear from one official is that 'it's going to look like it's Disneyland'. Come on, death is something that should be dignified, not a Disneyland concept. So that was another disappointment for the residents."
A third resident said: "According to somebody who gave me this (information), in the central region - we are in the central region - (there are) 21 funeral services. There are another two in the northeast and one in the east. A lot of places do not have funeral parlours, so why Sin Ming? One of the strongest reasons URA gave is that it's central. I don't know why it is central. There is no MRT service going there and buses servicing the road are also very few."
MP Hri Kumar, who was at the dialogue session with Minister Lim, addressed the concerns of the residents.Mr Hri Kumar acknowledged that the siting of the funeral parlour was a difficult issue.
But he said the decision is not final and that discussions are still going on with the authorities on ideas such as having a commercial building on the adjoining plot to block the view of the funeral parlour from residents.
Mr Hri Kumar added that there would be no Disneyland concept.
"This Disneyland idea, not sure how it came about, maybe a poor choice of words. As I understand it, there is no Disneyland concept. It's not going to be a rollercoaster ride into the parlour," he said.
He also explained why the authorities chose Sin Ming.
Mr Hri Kumar said: "In the unfortunate incident of someone passing away, relatives and friends from all over the island will want to come and pay their respects, and the feedback from the funeral parlour operators is that when you have a parlour in the outskirts, in a very difficult or very inaccessible part of the country, it makes life difficult for residents from around the country to go and visit and pay their respects."
He said that when HDB and URA tendered out some land in Yishun for a funeral parlour some years ago, it failed because operators said it was not commercially feasible as it was too far out. - CNA/ir
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