AHTC says it welcomes feedback, acts quickly on Xiaxue’s complaints

Singapore — The Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) has responded to social media influencer and Aljunied resident Xiaxue’s complaints about poor estate maintenance and given the assurance that it is in the process of rectifying the issues she raised.

On Tuesday (Oct 6), Xiaxue — whose name is Wendy Cheng — claimed in her Instagram Stories that her housing area was in a “destitute state” and that the poor maintenance in her area posed a danger to residents.

She included photos of a damaged void deck ceiling after a chunk of the concrete fell onto the ground. She added that exposed wires were secured with cable ties and that the concrete floor of the corridor outside her unit was damaged.

The vlogger also took issue with cracks in certain parts of the block facade and with them being painted over in a colour that did not match the colour of the rest of the building. She complained about peeling paint and expressed concern about a pipe leaking a dark green substance. She also claimed that she had seen rats in the vicinity.

Xiaxue said she did not want to raise the issues online but decided to do so after having highlighted them to no avail to her Workers’ Party (WP) MP.

On Wednesday (Oct 7), Xiaxue said the issues she had flagged were rectified that same afternoon and suggested that the work was carried out because AHTC took notice of her posts. Both the damage outside the unit and that in the void deck ceiling were patched up.

Posting photos of the repairs, she wrote in her Instagram Stories: “Today workers came to fix the broke concrete outside my unit. So I guess they can be efficient if they want to … Wasn’t so hard was it? Why take so long to do zzz …

“Finally. Very fast suddenly after complaining it’s a miracle lol … Today the WP people must have been like ‘f!@#ing suay why she must stay at our estate’ lol.”

The AHTC says it was alerted to Xiaxue’s Instagram Stories on Tuesday morning. As some of the issues highlighted required interim action, the town council said it deployed contractors who were already on site for Repair and Redecoration (R&R) work to begin surface repair works at her block.

The WP-run town council added that the estate issues will be addressed in a major R&R project that commenced last year but had to be temporarily suspended for “most of this year” due to Covid-19 restrictions. The project, which involves a number of blocks around Xiaxue’s estate, was “gradually resuming”.

The AHTC said that while it does carry out ad-hoc repairs, some issues are addressed during major projects. The R&R project is set to address “most of the other major issues in the estate” and will involve repainting, facade repair and void deck improvement work.

It said contractors were starting work at more blocks to “catch up”. It added: “The town council recognises that there is always room for improvement, and welcomes feedback from residents.” /TISG