A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CHENG SAN AND HOUGANG TOWN COUNCILS

Abstract

Town Councils either employ managing agents or have their own in-house management teams to carry out their daily operations. This study focuses on the performances of two Town Councils under different management styles. Three criteria are used: resident satisfaction, awareness and participation. Generally, the majority of the respondents of the two Towns are satisfied with their physical environments. However, the Hougang respondents want more improvement works while the Cheng San respondents want cleaner common properties. Although most of the respondents know where their Town Council offices are, they do not know the functions of their Town Councils. Besides, the majority of them has also never participated in estate management work. Both Town Councils should do more to raise the residents' awareness and participation, otherwise the aim of letting the residents run their estates may not be achieved. Avenues such as more publicity about the Town Council's functions and the channels of communication are recommended to Cheng San and Hougang Town Councils to improve their services. These recommendations are based on the resident survey and other literature.