TOWN COUNCIL MANAGEMENT PERFORMANCE

Abstract

Town councils took over the management of public housing estates in all constituencies after March 1990. When town councils were first introduced, there were reservations and concerns on the role of town councils, and their performance in comparison with the Housing and Development Board which managed on the basis of a centralized management system. More than ten years has passed since the concept of town councils was first established in 1988, and the general observation is that town councils have generally performed well although the performance varied among different town councils. Even within big towns managed by a particular town council, the performance differed from constituency to constituency. This dissertation attempts to assess the performance of a typical town council, Marine Parade Town Council, in terms of service delivery and maintenance of standards with regards to counter service, telephone enquiry service, estate cleanliness, repairs and maintenance, improvement works as well as the enforcement functions, and how they may vary from constituency to constituency within the same town and across room types. A field survey on the assessment of the performance of Marine Parade Town Council based on face-to-face interviews with residents living in each of the seven constituencies of Marine Parade Town is also discussed.