SINGAPORE: Residents at The Sail @ Marina Bay are taking property developer CDL to court over what they say are defects with the condominium’s rubbish chute system.

Bags of rubbish would often get stuck in the chutes, causing a foul smell and attracting pests, residents told Channel NewsAsia on Wednesday (Jan 17).

They say they have had to bear with the stench for almost eight years.

Investigations conducted by the condominium’s Management Corporation Strata Title (MCST) attributed the problem to the defective design of the chute system.

In 2013, residents mandated the MCST to take developer City Developments Limited (CDL) to task. Several letters of demand were sent to CDL, calling for it to rectify the defects. A writ of summons and statement of claim were filed a year later.

Four years on, the long-running saga has not been resolved and the case will be heard by the courts on Feb 6.

When contacted, CDL confirmed the lawsuit. A spokesman declined to comment further as the case is now before the courts.

Once touted as Singapore’s finest luxury condominium, few would have heard about the smelly rubbish chutes that residents have had to live with.

A 59-year-old resident who wanted to be known only as Ms Kym said: “The garbage chute has been out for a long time and we haven’t been able to use it. This for me is the biggest problem … the smell is atrocious.” 

She added: “The lifts have also been breaking down a little bit and this throws the building out because we’ve got 69 floors and many units.”

Another resident Marjorie Wu, 22, said: “My father comes down to the loading bay on the first floor to throw our bags of rubbish every day.”

One resident with knowledge of the lawsuit told Channel NewsAsia that the defective design was “one of the main issue(s) in the lawsuit”.

When Channel NewsAsia visited the condominium on Wednesday, the chutes were sealed and repair works were under way.

The development’s management council told Channel NewsAsia that extra cleaners have to be hired to manually remove the bags of rubbish left outside the chutes several times a day.

The MCST is also seeking monetary compensation for damaged fixtures, which includes burst water pipes underground.

In an upcoming extraordinary general meeting next Saturday, the MCST will seek the residents’ consent to use up to S$3.3 million from the sinking fund to replace the entire rubbish chute system. It will also seek consent to use up to S$450,000 from the management fund for legal proceedings.

SINGAPORE: Uber Singapore on Thursday (Jan 18) officially announced it will be bringing surge pricing to all ComfortDelGro taxis here through a new service called UberFLASH. 

In a press release, the ride-hailing company said commuters will be able to see UberFLASH trip fares before they request a ride, and fares will be lower by 5-10 per cent on average compared to an uberX ride. 

Come Jan 19, commuters can book rides using the UberFLASH feature. The base fare starts at S$3 while distance fare per kilometre is S$0.45 and time fare per minute is at S$0.20. Other charges such as wait time fee of $0.20 per minute after three minutes and cancellation fee of S$6 after five minutes, similar to Uber’s other offerings, would apply too, it added.  

By comparison, the metered fare option offered by ComfortDelGro currently states that the flag-down fare for its taxis range from S$3.20 for Hyundai Sonata to S$3.90 for Toyota Prius, Hyundai Ioniq and limousine cabs. 

According to Uber, when prices are surging, riders will see a multiplier to the standard rates on the map. For example, you might see a surge at 1.8x or 2.5x, and this is how much your base fare will be multiplied by. So a fare that is usually S$10 would be S$18 when it’s at 1.8x surge, it explained on its website. 

“UberFLASH is the first in a series of collaborative efforts between ComfortDelGro and Uber,” said ComfortDelGro Taxi’s chief executive Ang Wei Neng, who added that the new feature leads to a “win-win situation” for both commuters and taxi drivers. 

Both companies had announced in December last year they had entered into a strategic agreement to form a joint venture, in which ComfortDelGro will acquire a 51 per cent stake in Uber’s wholly owned subsidiary Lion City Holdings for S$642 million, and ranks as the local company’s single largest deal to date. The deal is subject to regulatory approval, the companies added then. 

The Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) subsequently sought public feedback on the proposed deal after the deal was announced, and the window closed on Jan 8 this year. 

An Uber spokesman said the companies had sought permission from the regulators to launch this new service, but the overall regulatory clearance for the joint venture is still ongoing.

SINGAPORE: Parents of UWC South East Asia students had mixed views on Thursday (Jan 18), barely a day after police said a driver who tried to get a female student from the school into his van had no “ill intent”.

On Jan 12, UWC’s Head of College Chris Edwards sent an email to parents of the school saying a student had been “approached” while she was on her way home. 

Channel NewsAsia understands that the 32-year-old Singaporean driver had offered a lift to the teenager on Jan 11 because it was raining. 

The incident was one of two of students from different international schools being approached by strangers in vans. The second involved a student from Tanglin Trust School on Jan 16, and the police said on Wednesday evening that it was an “unrelated” incident involving a female driver. 

Some UWC parents said they found it hard to believe that there was no ill intent, while others were just glad that the police were able to identify the driver, and took it as a lesson.

Housewife Prisca Chu told Channel NewsAsia that her concerns were not completely allayed. “It rains all the time in Singapore, but I’ve never been offered a ride. I don’t think it’s common practice in Singapore,” she said.

Ms Chu, who has a five-year-old daughter in the school, added that given that the incident was one of two that involved international schools within a short period, she was inclined to think that it was not a coincidence.

Another mother, who has an 11-year-old son in the school, said she would wait for the school’s confirmation before she believes that there was no threat to the safety of the teenager involved. 

She said she was keenly aware that worse things can happen, because when she was in the United States, two children were nearly kidnapped from her neighbour’s home by someone in a vehicle.

Professor Rani Mullen, 50, said that some of the parents in a chat group she belongs to were upset, because even if the man had no ill intent, they felt that there should be more awareness that “it is just not okay” for anyone to approach children like that.

INCIDENT A GOOD REMINDER TO REMAIN VIGILANT

But she, like other parents, said that the incident was a good reminder for families who may be living in a “false bubble of safety” given Singapore’s reputation as a safe country.

Another father, who has a 13-year-old son in the school, said he was glad that the police were able to identify the driver. This incident, while said to be benign, was a reminder for the international school parents’ community that these incidents could happen in Singapore, he added.

“Many of us are Westerners, and these things do happen where we come from. We bring our fears with us. It could happen. We are very lucky there are cameras and so much security here,” he said.

Another parent, whose nine-year-old daughter studies in the school, said: “I don’t think any country is ever 100 per cent safe, so we still have to be vigilant.”

Police investigations into the other “unrelated incident” involving a female driver are ongoing.