Town Council (Amendment) Bill - Singapore Statutes Online

Town Councils (Amendment) Bill

Bill No. 24/1990

Read the first time on 4th October 1990.

An Act to amend the Town Councils Act (Chapter 329A of the 1989 Revised Edition).

Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows:

Short title and commencement

1. This Act may be cited as the Town Councils (Amendment) Act 1990 and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint.

Amendment of section 2

2. Section 2(1) of the Town Councils Act (referred to in this Act as the principal Act) is amended —

(a)	by deleting the word “gas,” in paragraph (c) of the definition of “common property”; and
(b)	by deleting the words “the vice-chairman” in the definition of “vice-chairman” and substituting the words “a vice-chairman”.

Amendment of section 6

3. Section 6 of the principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after the word “or” in the second line of subsection (1)(b), the word “any”.

Amendment of section 9

4. Section 9 of the principal Act is amended —

(a)

by deleting subsection (3) and substituting the following subsection:

“(3) The chairman shall appoint from among the members not more than two vice-chairmen for such term, not exceeding two years, as he may determine.”;

(b)

by inserting, immediately after the word “or” in the first line of subsection (4), the word “a”;

(c)

by deleting the words “the vice-chairman” in the second line of subsection (8) and substituting the words “any vice-chairman”; and

(d)

by deleting the words “the vice-chairman” in the first line of subsection (9) and substituting the words “any vice-chairman”.

Amendment of section 10

5. Section 10 of the principal Act is amended —

(a)	by deleting the words “the vice-chairman” in the second line of subsection (2) and substituting the words “any vice-chairman”; and
(b)	by deleting the words “both the chairman and the vice-chairman” in subsection (3) and substituting the words “the chairman and vice-chairmen”.

Amendment of section 12

6. Section 12 of the principal Act is amended —

(a)	by deleting the words “The vice-chairman” in subsection (3) and substituting the words “A vice-chairman”; and
(b)	by deleting the words “the vice-chairman” in the first line of subsection (4) and substituting the words “a vice-chairman”.

Amendment of section 19

7. Section 19(1) of the principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after the word “any” in the first line of paragraph (c), the words “part of the common property or any”.

Amendment of section 24

8. Section 24 of the principal Act is amended by deleting subsection (2) and substituting the following subsection:

“(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), a Town Council may, with the approval of the Minister, make by-laws for or in respect of all or any of the following matters:

(a)	prescribing the administrative fee to be paid by any person in respect of any services provided by the Town Council or any debt due to the Town Council;
(b)	prohibiting or regulating the parking of vehicles on common property other than parking places;
(c)	prescribing the penalty (such penalty, if unpaid, to constitute a debt due to the Town Council and be recoverable as such) to be paid by the Town Council’s licensees or by any owner or tenant of any flat leased from the Board for late payment of any conservancy and service charges or licence fee due to the Town Council;
(d)	requiring deposits to be placed with the Town Council by any owner or tenant of any flat leased from the Board to secure the payment of conservancy and service charges; and
(e)	prescribing the offences which may be compounded.”.

Amendment of section 38

9. Section 38 of the principal Act is amended —

(a)	by deleting the words “30 days” in the first and in the fifth lines of subsection (4)(b) and substituting in each case the words “the month”; and
(b)	by deleting the words “30 days” in subsection (5) and substituting the words “the month”.

New sections 43A to 43E

10. The principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after section 43, the following sections:

“Deduction of arrears of charges from compensation and other moneys payable by the Board

43A.—(1) Where any conservancy and service charges are due and remain unpaid by the owner or tenant of any flat to a Town Council upon the vesting of the flat in the Board under section 52 or 57 of the Housing and Development Act [Cap. 129] or upon the termination of the tenancy or lease of the flat, the Board may, on a request in writing by the Town Council and notwithstanding section 58 of that Act, deduct such charges (including any interest and penalty thereon) remaining unpaid from any compensation, cash deposit and any other moneys in respect of the flat payable by the Board to the owner or tenant of the flat and, subject to the law relating to bankruptcy and all statutory charges, encumbrances and moneys due and payable to the Board, pay the amount so deducted to the Town Council as soon as practicable.

Fines to be paid into the Town Council Fund

43B. All fines imposed under this Act or any by-law made by a Town Council and all moneys collected by it under section 43E shall be paid into the Town Council Fund.

Demand for particulars

43C.—(1) A Town Council or any member or employee of a Town Council or any police officer who reasonably believes that any person has committed an offence under this Act or any by-law or rules made thereunder may require the person to furnish evidence of his identity and the person shall thereupon furnish such evidence of his identity as may be required by the police officer, the Town Council or its member or employee.

(2) A Town Council may, subject to such conditions as it thinks fit, delegate to its managing agent or any employee of its managing agent the power under subsection (1); and any power so delegated may be exercised by such agent or employee, subject to the production of his authority when requested, in the name and on behalf of the Town Council.

(3) Any person who refuses to furnish any information required of him by a Town Council, any member or employee of the Town Council, any police officer or any person to whom the power under subsection (1) has been delegated pursuant to subsection (2), or who wilfully mis-states such information, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000.

Liability of owners of vehicles for parking offences

43D.—(1) When a parking offence is committed within a Town, the person who at the time of the commission of the offence is the owner of the vehicle in respect of which the offence is committed shall be guilty of an offence under any by-law made by the Town Council in all respects as if he were the actual offender guilty of the parking offence unless the court is satisfied that the vehicle was at the relevant time a stolen vehicle or a vehicle illegally taken or used.

(2) Nothing in this section shall affect the liability of the actual offender except that where a penalty has been imposed on or recovered from a person in relation to any parking offence, no further penalty shall be imposed on or recovered from any other person in relation thereto.

(3) Notwithstanding subsection (1), no owner of a vehicle shall by virtue of this section be guilty of an offence if he —

(a)	within 7 days after service on him by a Town Council of a notice alleging that he has been guilty of the offence, furnishes by statutory declaration to the Town Council the name and address of the person who was in charge of the vehicle at all relevant times relating to the parking offence;
(b)	satisfies the Town Council that he did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained such name and address; or
(c)	satisfies the court that he did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained such name and address.

(4) A statutory declaration made under subsection (3)(a) if produced in any proceedings against the person named therein and in respect of any parking offence shall be prima facie evidence that the person was in charge of the vehicle at all relevant times relating to the parking offence.

(5) A statutory declaration which relates to more than one parking offence shall not be regarded as a statutory declaration under, or for the purposes of, subsection (3)(a).

(6) In this section —

“owner”, in relation to a vehicle, includes —

(a)	any person who has the use of the vehicle under a hirepurchase agreement but excludes the owner under any such agreement;
(b)	the person in whose name the vehicle is registered except where the person has sold or otherwise disposed of the vehicle and has complied with the rules made under the Road Traffic Act [Cap. 276] applicable to him in regard to such sale or disposal; and
(c)	in the case of a vehicle in respect of which a general licence is issued under section 28 of the Road Traffic Act, the person to whom the general licence is issued;

“parking offence” means an offence of parking a vehicle or of causing or permitting a vehicle to stand, wait or be parked in contravention of any by-law made by a Town Council.

Powers of composition

43E. A Town Council may, in its discretion, compound any offence under this Act or any by-law made by it which is prescribed as a compoundable offence by collecting from the person reasonably suspected of having committed the offence a sum not exceeding $400.”.

Amendment of section 50

11. Section 50 of the principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after the word “Council”, the words “and all employees of its managing agent”.

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