TODAY
Time for a tougher approach
05:55 AM Dec 30, 2009
I REFER to the recent attention on killer litter. After tens of thousands of warning letters, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) prefers to continue with its soft approach. Must the cycle of another incident-followed-by-public relations continue?
The HDB's wasteful idea to send out almost a million letters to all residents reflects its ignorance. Enough has already appeared in print and another million envelopes will not make any difference to those who have little consideration for others.
Action speaks louder than words. I have a few suggestions on some measures.
- Town councils (TCs), as managers of HDB estates, have to be made accountable for not taking preventive measures. There is no point in having by-laws which are not enforced.
- De-link politics from safety issues (the first Property Officer I spoke to many years ago was afraid that taking action on killer litter would "offend residents") and the result will likely be a killer-litter free environment as seen in private estates.
- Appoint an independent body to survey killer litter objects and take measures to ensure they are permanently removed.
- To show its resolve, the HDB has to take action on a small proportion of repeat offenders. Punitive measures could be incremental. When this becomes the talk of the town, the act of residents removing killer litter will feed on itself. Action has to be taken before, and - not as usual - after an incident has occurred.
- Conduct regular surveys of the situation in different estates and publish the results.
- An objective time frame should be set to reduce the number of killer litter objects and TCs should work towards it consistently instead of on an ad hoc basis.
Is this why Property Officers "prefer" to CULL/KILL cats instead of "offending" residents
1) who are not bound by any HDB's Responsible Pet Ownership Regulations, to keep their home cats indoor and to have them sterilised to avoid abandoning "excessive" cats,
2) who feed cats irresponsibly by counselling them or even fine recalcitrant irresponsible feeders
3) by explaining complaining residents that culling cats have not and will not be effective because of the "vacuum effect" (complainants are not even told that cats are killed as a result of their complaints!)?
Town councils should take preventive measures by
1) Getting the HDB to remove the cat ban that prevents Property Officers from enforcing responsible cat ownership. Instead the Property Officers will refer such irresponsible cat owners to their HDB colleagues who will give the owners the ultimatum of "removing the cats". Such irresponsible owners will simply abandon their cats into the estates, that then become the Property Officers' problem as the cats are now OUTSIDE the HDB flats!
2) Recognise that feeding of cats is a universal human trait and that any "do not feed strays" posters will only encourage "ghost feeding" and explore ways to educate residents who have an interest in community cats to feed responsibly.
