Source : Straits Times - 9 Sep 2008
THE two carpark valet services in Holland Village, there for years, were told yesterday that they have to cease operations from today.
Last night, workers contracted by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) put up signs at the carpark entrances in Lorong Liput and Lorong Mambong declaring that such parking services were banned.
An electronic parking system will go up there on Sept 22 to regulate the demand for parking lots, said the HDB.
Mr R.K. Vicnesh, 32, who runs the year-old Sakthya Services, said he heard about the ban only yesterday. Before him, the booth had been run by his brother-in-law from 2001.
Mr Vicnesh charges motorists $8 to park their car so they can avoid the hassle of circling the area for a lot.
His valet service has tie-ups with eight restaurants and service providers in the area, including Splendour Spa, Qi Mantra and Lebanese restaurant Al-Qas’r.
Sakthya charges these businesses a monthly fee for their customers to enjoy free valet parking. It also has a tie-up with DBS Bank to give customers free valet parking if they charge $60 or more to their DBS or POSB cards at the outlets in the area.
Mr Vicnesh has written to the HDB asking to be allowed to continue his services. He is also collecting signatures from business owners for a petition against the ban on valet services.
Both he and the other valet operator, Purple Valet Services, plan to continue operating until further notice from the HDB. Said Mr Ray K., a valet with Purple Valet Services: ‘The outlets have paid us, so we will stay.’
Both operators said that in the time they have been there, nobody has told them that they needed a permit, or that they were not allowed there, except that Sakthya was once asked by the Land Transport Authority to move its valet booth away from the pavement. It has since operated its booth outside the Haagen Daz cafe without further incident.
Shop owners, whose customers are younger Singaporeans and expatriates, expressed disappointment at the ban on valet services.
Mrs Sabrinah Hussin, 23, who manages Splendour Spa, said eight in 10 of the spa’s customers used the free valet service because ‘it is hard to find parking lots here, and they want to be on time for their appointments’.
Mr Amos Liew, 27, a supervisor at Qi Mantra spa, is worried he may lose customers if the parking problem worsens.
Lebanese restaurant Al-Qas’r managing director Georges Khanashat said the restaurant might have to move if the situation does not improve.
Lawyer Leong Kwok Yan, 61, said valet services were needed because parking facilities were inadequate. ‘People are always waiting around for a long time, and they jam up the carpark.’
Besides the Lorong Liput carpark - where half the lots are season parking ones for HDB residents in the area - visitors to Holland Village used to have another carpark across the road at Chip Bee Gardens, but that was closed down in 2004 for work to build Holland Village’s MRT station.
Measures to ease parking congestion
THE Housing and Development Board will be implementing a series of measures to improve the parking situation at the Holland Avenue carpark.
An Electronic Parking System will be put in place in the Lorong Liput carpark from Sept 22.
Parking will no longer be free on Sundays and public holidays, as the demand for free lots has left season parking ticket holders without lots.
Lorong Liput will be turned into a one-way street to facilitate entry into the carpark.
Holland Village has faced a parking crunch since 2004 when several carpark lots were lost due to the construction of the Circle Line’s Holland Village MRT station, which is expected to be completed in 2010.
In November 2005, an upper deck carpark just behind the Cold Storage Supermarket with 89 spaces opened, bringing the total available lots to 414.
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