Govt will not stop town councils from putting up barbed wire
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SINGAPORE : How do you stop children from playing football in the void deck? Town councils have tried sign boards and reminders in neighbourhood newsletters, but to no avail.
Their bugbear is that a football game in the void deck can injure passing residents, damage lights and is generally a noisy affair.
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Barbed wires on cross beams and rows of nails on the wall - this is not the scene at a high-security prison - it is what you will see in the void decks of more than 100 HDB flats in Tampines and Hougang.
They were put up by the town councils to stop children from playing football in void deck.
If the football hits any of these spikes, they will burst.
However, in Parliament on Tuesday, NMP Braema Mathi asked if such extreme measures were really necessary.
To this, Cedric Foo, Minister of State, National Development, said, "When I first heard about barbed wires and nails, I thought it's a bit draconian. But if we were to take a look at them...they are usually placed right up there in the ceiling, some 2 metres away from the ground, and they look like zero studs than nails, and even the barbed wires, they are placed also up in the ceiling at the cross beams, so they don't really pose a danger to the users."
The Government says it will not interfere in the town council's decision to put up barbed wire and nails.
Instead it is looking to open up more plots of state land for children and it is urging neighbourhood schools to open up their fields.
The Government is also looking for more sites for street soccer courts. - CNA
Someone in parliment was saying that this is a sort of terror act to kids -
Good job, prep them for NS.
