WP plans to bring Punggol East under wings of Aljunied—Hougang Town Council

SINGAPORE: The Workers’ Party (WP) plans to bring its newly—won ward of Punggol East under the wings of the Aljunied—Hougang Town Council (AHTC).

The incoming management will be applying to bring Aljunied GRC, Hougang and Punggol East SMCs under one town council.

MP—elect for Punggol East, Lee Li Lian, and chairman of Aljunied—Hougang Town Council (AHTC), Sylvia Lim, revealed the plans in a statement on Thursday.

They said the proposed merger will give rise to a mutually—beneficial relationship between AHTC and Punggol East.

The merged town council will be bigger and will have greater flexibility in increasing operational efficiency.

This will involve re—engineering as well as centralisation of functions and specialisation of work.

Ms Lee and Ms Lim said Punggol East will be able to leverage the economies of scale of a bigger town council while AHTC will potentially be able to enjoy bigger cost savings.

WP has started preparations for the handover of the town council functions from the People’s Action Party—run Pasir Ris—Punggol Town Council, which has been looking after Punggol East SMC.

Ms Lee won the seat in a four—cornered by—election on 26 January.

A key aspect of the handover is finding office premises in Punggol East for the incoming management as soon as possible.

WP said the obvious option is to take over the existing town council office at Block 156A Rivervale Crescent.

The party will work on this urgently with the Housing and Development Board.

— CNA/ck/al