SINGAPORE — The Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) said it will bear the full costs of cleaning the high areas at all five hawker centres under its management, in its latest response in the ongoing spat between the town council and the National Environment Agency (NEA) over the cleaning of its hawker centres.

In a statement released today - signed by AHPETC vice-chairman Pritam Singh - the town council said this included the necessary scaffolding and canvas costs. It also released the tentative schedule for the annual cleaning of the five hawker centres, to “allay unnecessary anxiety caused to hawkers and the public”.

The statement came after the NEA said on Sunday that it has received feedback from another hawker centre at Block 630 Bedok Reservoir Road that the AHPETC did not intend to clean areas above 2.5m.

In its statement, the AHPETC said it was concerned with “inaccuracies” in the NEA’s statements on the cleaning of two hawker centres at Bedok North - Block 539 and Block 511. Hawkers from these two centres had complained of having to pay extra for the scaffolding to clean high areas at the centres, saying this was not in line with past practice.

It said that it had been told by the NEA that “the Hawkers’ Association will make the necessary arrangements with their contractors on the scaffolding erection/dismantling during the spring cleaning period from 4-8 March 2013”.

The NEA had said that this referred to the need for canvas covers to protect their stalls during the cleaning of the ceilings and beams, and that there was “no discussion on any change to the normal practice for the town council to put up and pay for the scaffoldings needed for the cleaning of ceilings” at Block 538.

In response, the AHPETC said: “We leave it to the public to judge whether any reasonable person would take the sentence to merely reflect the provision of canvas rather than the erection/dismantling of scaffolding itself.”

It also maintained that it was “not privy” to any discussion between the Hawkers’ Association and its cleaning contractor ATL Maintenance, although the NEA had said the association had referred ATL back to the town council after refusing to pay for the scaffolding.

Adding that it held the same position over the cleaning of the hawker centre at Block 511, the town council said: “If NEA had felt that any of the above arrangements were not in accordance with requirements, NEA, being the coordinating agency, could have easily clarified the matter instead of perpetuating the confusion.”