By Veena Bharwani

SOME tenants in what used to be a quiet neighbourhood in Sembawang are up in arms.

For the past seven months, they have been battling against what they say are high levels of noise coming from a camp site located right beside their houses on Queen's Avenue.

The noise, according to them, is generated by groups who attend night camps and conduct activities, such as rock concerts, at an indoor hall just 10m from their homes.

Besides the noise, the tenants also worry about the apparent lack of supervision of these youth camps, which sometimes run on late into the night.

These tenants say that they have heard children screaming and shouting till the wee hours of the morning.

They also cite a recent incident, where three 15-year-old girls were injured on the campsite when an all-terrain vehicle hit them on 23 Nov at around 2am.

The girls were attending a three-day church camp on the 3ha site at 2 Admiralty Road East.

The police arrested a man in his early 20s in that incident, which was reported in The New Paper on 26 Nov.

The site, formerly a prison training ground, is owned by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) and is leased to Focus Adventure, a company that runs Camp Challenge and manages corporate training camps, youth camps and church camps.

The company took over the site in March this year for a period of tenancy of nine years until 2017.

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: This old wire fence separates the camp compound from the nearest resident's house, a distance of 10m.

One tenant living on Queen's Avenue, Mrs Michele Wilkinson, whose house shares a fence with the campsite (left), said: 'We are not against kids having camps. We think it is very healthy that the kids have such activities during the school holidays.

'But starting loud rock concerts before nine in the morning and for it to end after 11 at night is not reasonable and disturbs the peace of the people living in the area.'

Mrs Wilkinson, who is in her late 40s, works from home running her own wine business.

She has been living in the house for three years.

Her next-door neighbour, a 48-year-old man who runs companies dealing in timber commodities, said: 'I have been living here for nine years. Before Focus Adventure took over the place... the activities that the prison camp ran were not light-natured. The men used batons and threw orders at each other.

'But it only occurred during a certain period during the day. We were not subjected to loud rock music early in the morning and late at night when we are trying to sleep.'

He also wondered about the nature of the activities.

'What are these kids doing running concerts and screaming and shouting at 2am?

'We are concerned about their safety, especially since that accident happened three weeks ago. Camps are about outdoor activities, not indoor concerts,' he said.

While the problems with noise started seven months ago, the two tenants said that they have reached breaking point over the past two weeks because there have been several camps running back-to-back during this December holiday period.

Camp Challenge said that this month alone, they are managing five church camps. As part of the programme, there are indoor night-time worship concerts and seminars, Camp Challenge facilitator Andrew Chua said.

The tenants have written countless notes to SLA via e-mail, and called the police at wee hours of the morning when they feel the noise levels have reached unbearable levels. Their complaints have not fallen on deaf ears.

Camp Challenge, along with SLA, have been aware of their grievances and have taken steps to ease the noise problems.

In June, after the first batch of complaints came in, SLA, along with Camp Challenge, decided to stop the use of outdoor sound systems on the field.

Mr Chua said he also had the two buildings closest to the tenants' houses partially fitted with sound-proofing materials, spending more than $20,000.

'This cuts down on the noise that leak out,' he said.

'These are very old buildings under conservation, so we had to work from the inside to have the walls fittd with rock wool.'

Not effective

Mr Chua added: 'While we have 14 buildings on the site, unfortunately, only the ones closest to the residential houses are the biggest and can accommodate large groups for camps mostly during the school holidays.'

Still, the tenants do not think the measures are very effective.

Mrs Wilkinson said: 'We can still hear loud thumping sounds from a full rock band early in the morning.'

When asked if they were going to stem noisy activities such as indoor rock concerts at odd hours, he said: 'We don't plan to instill such rules because that is what the kids go to school for - rules.

'During holiday camps, kids want to let loose and be themselves. They get excited and there will be a certain amount of noise generated.'

There are no strict school-like rules imposed by Camp Challenge on campers.

Mr Chua said: 'Any kind of outdoor night-time activities like campfires are held on a court very far away from the residential area.'

Another possible plan: Building a sound-proof container further away from the residential area.

On the issue of safety, Mr Chua said that there is one duty officer from Focus Adventure who stays overnight to monitor the camp activities.

On the 23 Nov incident where an all-terrain vehicle hit the girls, Mr Chua declined to comment.

He would only say that after the incident, the batteries from the vehicles were taken out and that the police were still investigating the matter.

In an e-mail response, an SLA spokesman said it has advised Focus Adventures to see how it could 'tweak the camp activities schedule to place high-energy activities in other parts of the day and early evening'.

It has also advised residential tenants to be tolerant toward the seasonal - mostly June and December peaks only - use of microphones and amplifiers 'to address an average pax of 200 to 300 campers'.

The spokesman added that the agency has been meeting frequently with both parties to ensure that the clause in the tenancy agreement requiring tenants not to interfere with the quiet of the occupants of adjoining buildings is not breached.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Dec 18, 2008.

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