Charged parking at parks to regulate usage, prevent abuse

We thank Mr Lee Yong Se, Mr Sia Chuan Han and Madam Jessy Leow Siew Kim for their letters on charged parking at our parks ("Paid parking discourages use of parks", Forum Online, last Friday; "Parks should offer free parking", last Saturday; and "Impose carpark fee at parks only during peak hours", Tuesday, respectively).

The National Parks Board (NParks) is implementing an automated parking system at 18 carparks located in 12 parks from this month.

The selected carparks are in East Coast Park, Pasir Ris Park, West Coast Park, Changi Beach Park, Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, Woodlands Waterfront Park, Admiralty Park, Bedok Reservoir Park, Choa Chu Kang Park, Dairy Farm Nature Park, Labrador Nature Reserve, and Springleaf Park.

Currently, carparks serving certain parks which cater to a larger number of users are charged to regulate usage and prevent abuse.

In recent years, NParks has been receiving complaints on the constant misuse of parking spaces in the above parks, where parking spaces were taken up for extended periods of time by non-park users.

To minimise such abuse, NParks has implemented charging for parking in these parks.

We appreciate the feedback and suggestions we have received on the carpark charging and will monitor the situation at these carparks.

Chia Seng Jiang

Director, Parks National Parks Board

This article was first published on July 23, 2015.
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