Guidance Given By Community Improvement Projects Committee

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim asked the Minister for National Development whether the Community Improvement Projects Committee (CIPC) (i) provides guidelines to the Town Councils (TCs) and Citizens' Consultative Committees (CCCs) to deprioritize proposals for funding Designated Smoking Points (DSPs) and (ii) requests TCs and CCCs to conduct surveys of residents who have requested DSPs, as to whether they are smokers or not, before such community-led initiatives are funded.

The Community Improvement Projects Committee (CIPC), provides funding support for community-led improvement projects in Housing and Development Board estates for the benefit of local residents. Such estate enhancements include covered linkways, footpaths, cycling tracks and playgrounds.

To ensure that the CIPC funding is used prudently and that projects serve the general community as a whole, CIPC issues a set of funding eligibility criteria to guide Citizens' Consultative Committees (CCCs) and Town Councils. For example, projects that are not value for money or those that only cater to specific interest groups or commercial entities will be rejected.

The CIPC has not issued any guidelines to deprioritise proposals involving Designated Smoking Points (DSP), nor required the conduct of surveys for such proposals. Having said that, the CIPC has not, to-date, approved any DSP project proposals by any Town Council or CCC. The CIPC's view is that Town Councils or CCCs that wish to build DSPs may do so using their own funds.