Jurong West Hawker Centre to close temporarily when management contract ends
SINGAPORE — Jurong West Hawker Centre, whose management courted controversy over its tray-return scheme in 2018, will be closed temporarily for potential renovation after the management’s contract ends on 6 August.
In a media release on Tuesday (5 May), the National Environment Agency said that the three-year contract with Hawker Management, a socially-conscious enterprise under Koufu, will not be renewed.
The market and hawker centre, located at Jurong West Street 61, will re-open sometime in the second half of 2021.
During the closure, NEA will seek new ideas from operators to better meet the residents’ needs. It will also conduct public consultations to gather suggestions from the community, and could potentially conduct renovation works to improve the layout of the hawker centre.
‘Ideal performance standards’ not met
According to CNA, Hawker Management said that its “ideal performance standards” were not met, leading to its decision not to renew the management contract.
It said that, since its appointment as operator of Jurong West Hawker Centre in 2017, it has been putting in the necessary resources to “bring vibrancy to Jurong West Hawker Centre and support the local hawker trade”. However, the results have not met Hawker Management’s performance standards.
Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources, said that food and beverage business operators are badly hit by the COVID-10 pandemic situation.
“Food & beverage business operators, including stallholders at our hawker centres, are badly hit by the COVID-19 situation,” she said in the NEA media release.
“Given the poor business environment, when the lease of the current operator at Jurong West Hawker Centre, Hawker Management, expires on 6 August, NEA will seek new ideas and also a new operator to rejuvenate the operations and offerings... to better serve future stallholders, patrons and residents of the area.”
Stall rentals waived from June until closure
Existing stallholders will be offered to return to the renovated hawker centre when it is ready, if they wish to do so.
Meanwhile, Hawker Management will continue to manage the hawker centre until its contract expiry date. It will work with NEA to assist stallholders to relocate to available stalls at other NEA-managed hawker centres and markets, or Koufu-managed coffeeshops and food courts.
Hawker Management will also waive stall rentals from June to 6 August, and offer a $1,000 relocation fee to eligible stallholders.
For stallholders who choose to exit the trade and take on another job, or who may require financial assistance, NEA will work closely with relevant agencies to assist them.
Controversy over tray-return scheme in 2018
Hawker Management was part of a group of operators that NEA approved to run new hawker centres under its Socially-conscious Enterprise Hawker Centre model, which was piloted in 2015.
It created controversy in 2018, when its tray-return scheme – in which hawkers pay their customers 20 cents if they return the trays – caused unhappiness among the hawkers, who filed a petition to NEA saying that it placed additional financial burden on them.
Hawker Management eventually changed the scheme after talks with the hawkers. Under the amended scheme, customers pay a 20-cent deposit to collect clean trays for use, and are refunded when they return the trays to the collection points.
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