Laundry parked in HDB carpark

Laundry parked in HDB carpark

Bukit Batok residents warned against hanging clothes in public spaces

January 17, 2009

RESIDENTS of Bukit Batok Central find themselves greeted almost every morning by a peculiar sight.

Clothes are 'parked' at a multi-storey carpark nearby.


PLACE TO PARK CLOTHES: Laundry hung on a line put up by residents at a multi-storey carpark in Bukit Batok Central. TNP PICTURE: PEARLY TAN


Lines of clothes, including underwear, dry on the uppermost deck of the carpark, in full view of those living on floors overlooking it.

The carpark has been chosen by residents as it is both windy and sunny - ideal for drying clothes.

Said Mr K C Seah, 69, a resident of Block622, which is directly connected to the carpark: 'If I hang my clothes between the blocks, they won't dry quickly enough.'

The design of the block does not allow much wind or direct sunlight into the area where clothes are meant to be dried. There is a glass roof over the area, to keep the rain out.

So the residents use the roof of the carpark, where parking is not allowed now.

'Sometimes, residents from the higher floors also come down to use the area,' said Mr Seah, who lives on the sixth storey, and can walk directly out on to the roof of the carpark.

The top deck of the carpark is closed to cars, as the demand for parking can be accommodated on the lower five decks.

Stolen

The residents seem to have their own system to organise the clotheslines.

Each unit is 'allocated' a line and there seems to be an understanding among the residents that they will use only the lines that belong to them.


PLAYGROUND FOR LAUNDRY: A resident putting laundry out to dry. PICTURE: COURTESY OF ANITA ARUL

When asked why residents like Mr Seah do not use the corridor space just outside their homes, he replied that doing so would require them to leave the clothes outside overnight.

'Clothes would then get stolen,' said Mr Seah. 'It has happened to me before, and I don't want it to happen again.'

However, residents in some other blocks use the common corridors or the void deck because they complain that if they use their bamboo poles, waste is dumped on their clothes from units above.

'They (residents living on higher storeys) like to throw rubbish like bread and cigarette butts out the window and it happens almost every day,' said Ms Wan Hashifar, a resident of Jurong West Avenue 3.

Her family has been hanging their clothes on bamboo poles on a metal pole-holder outside their flat.

When contacted by The New Paper, a spokesman for Jurong Town Council said she had no problems with the Bukit Batok residents using the carpark space to dry their clothes.

'Residents make use of the top deck as it is an open space. The town council feels that, in view of the inconsistent weather, one or two residents may have taken to drying their clothes there temporarily without any inconvenience to anyone,' she said.

But was it an eyesore to other residents?

The Town Council argued that 'eyesore' was a subjective term.

'As it is now, it is not an issue. We will continue to monitor the situation.'

However, the HDB, which runs the carpark, has a different view.

'We are aware that there are residents who have hung out their laundry at the decks and have (verbally) advised them not to do so,' said Ms Evelyn Lim, HDB's public relations officer.

She added that under the Parking Places Rule, residents who continue using the carpark may be subjected to a fine of up to $400.

'But no one has been subjected to it (the fine) so far.'

Resident Hazel Lau says she does not mind the lines of laundry.

'Clothes take longer to dry in the first half of the year, so I'm okay with what they do,' said Ms Lau.

Source: http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,189988-1232229540,00.html?