WP town council trial ends; judgment expected end November

Oct 16, 2014

SINGAPORE – The trial to decide if the Workers’ Party town council flouted the law in holding an unlicensed Chinese New Year event concluded Thursday, after two-and-a-half days of hearings.

The defence closed its case after calling party chairman Sylvia Lim, and two employees of the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) to the stand. The two staffers testified on procedural matters, like the authenticity of documents central to the trial.

Earlier Thursday, National Environment Agency (NEA) prosecutor Isaac Tan, in cross-examing Ms Lim – who heads the town council – challenged her reasons for going ahead with the event in Hougang Central in January although it did not have a permit.

Mr Tan pointed out that NEA had from the outset said the event needed a permit under Section 35 of the Environmental Public Health Act.

AHPETC, despite thinking otherwise, did not once inform NEA of its position that the event was a “mini-fair” or a “community event” that would not require a permit, he added.

AHPETC has used the terms to describe the event during the trial, arguing that it was not a “temporary fair” or a “trade fair” as classified under the Act.

Mr Tan said: “If the town council truly believed that it did not require a permit, it would have put that unequivocally (to the NEA).” Click here