Jurong Country Club to submit compensation claim next week

SINGAPORE — Jurong Country Club will submit its compensation claim next Wednesday (Nov 25), as the clock ticks down to the Nov 2016 deadline that the club has been given to vacate its premises, and make way for the upcoming high-speed rail (HSR) linking the Republic and Kuala Lumpur, and other developments.

In a media statement today (Nov 19), the club said that it would be submitting its valuation to the Collector of Land Revenue.

In May, the authorities announced that the HSR project would terminate in Jurong East, and its terminus would be built on the land occupied by the club. As such, the 67-ha plot of land would be acquired by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), under the Land Acquisition Act.

The station will take up less than a fifth of the site, with the rest of the area to be redeveloped into what the Urban Redevelopment Authority called “an attractive mixed-use development precinct for business”.

Club president Bobby Wee said in the statement yesterday: “Working with our appointed valuers Knight Frank and our Acquisition Task Force which includes several valuation experts, we have been painstaking and meticulous in our efforts to value the Club correctly.”

“We have a duty… to arrive at a claim for compensation that is responsible and fair,” he said. “No amount of money will compensate our members for what we are losing, but we do hope for a just and equitable compensation that fairly reflects the losses brought about by the compulsory acquisition - which has in effect terminated our lease 20 years early.”

The club said that it has been cooperating with the SLA, and even provided them with the club’s 2010 and 2011 annual reports and income statement forecast for 2015 at their request.

In August, over 400 members attended the club’s extraordinary general meeting. During the session, members shared concerns that they might not be adequately compensated for their losses. They felt that the compensation should reflect the value of their sporting and social benefits at the club.