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Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss to work with architects to preserve Dakota Crescent

SINGAPORE — Mrs Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss, the Singapore People’s Party’s candidate for the Mountbatten single-seat ward, intends to work with architects, residents and heritage groups to draw up a plan for the authorities to reconsider redeveloping the entire Dakota Crescent estate.

Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss taking a break with party volunteers before meeting residents at Kampung Arang. Photo: Raj Nadarajan

Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss taking a break with party volunteers before meeting residents at Kampung Arang. Photo: Raj Nadarajan

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SINGAPORE — Mrs Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss, the Singapore People’s Party’s candidate for the Mountbatten single-seat ward, intends to work with architects, residents and heritage groups to draw up a plan for the authorities to reconsider redeveloping the entire Dakota Crescent estate.

Residents of rental blocks in the estate, which was built in the 1950s, were notified last year that they were required move out of their homes by Dec 31 next year.

But Mrs Chong-Aruldoss hopes that at least three of the estate’s 17 blocks, as well as Dakota Dove Playground, which is located in the heart of the enclave, could be preserved.

One idea is to transform Dakota Crescent into a hybrid development, where parts of the estate will be earmarked for community and commercial purposes. The space could also be remade into a design, creative and heritage space where a community museum can be built, for example.

As a start, Mrs Chong-Aruldoss is collaborating with local artists such as cartoonist Sonny Liew to document the estate.

“I want to champion retaining a certain proportion of the Singa­pore Improvement Trust flats. They serve as a physical reminder our past,” said the 52-year-old lawyer during a walkabout in the area today (Sept 5).

“I’m not a historian, but there’s a story behind all these flats that we need people to learn.”

She said such low-rise blocks of rental flats were a permanent feature of her childhood, which was spent growing up in an area in Mountbatten called Jalan Sedap.

“The Housing and Development Board flats are becoming taller and taller, and these low-rise flats here just become quainter in comparison,” she said.

During Mrs Chong-Aruldoss’ three-hour walkabout, where she was accompanied by her 56-year-old husband James Aruldoss, several residents recognised her and approached her with their concerns, which ranged from requiring subsidies to care for their sick parents, to conservation efforts within the estate.

Her opponent, People’s Action Party incumbent Lim Biow Chuan, was also seen canvassing for votes at the nearby Kallang Estate Market.

Both candidates will go to the polls on Sept 11, in a repeat of their 2011 face-off, which saw Mr Lim winning 58.65 per cent of the vote.

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