Featured images courtesy of Ms Tan.
A Mountbatten resident complained online when trash dumped in a HDB riser remained uncleared for four months despite three reports to the town council.
Furthermore, two of her OneService cases were marked as resolved despite any lack of change.
The Town Council attributed the lapses to human error and miscommunication, clearing the trash on 22 Jan.
On 21 Jan, the resident, Ms Tan, made a Reddit post expressing annoyance at the lack of action taken regarding trash in the common area.
Ms Tan told MS News that she discovered the trash in a HDB riser with two doors back in Sept 2025. The left side had a hole with some trash inside.
Image courtesy of Ms Tan
Meanwhile, the trash in the right side riser included paint cans, old uniforms, poles, and even snack wrappers, which could attract pests.
Image courtesy of Ms Tan
Additionally, she explained that the trash is stuck too deep in the riser for her to remove it by herself.
“You need someone to open up the riser door or use tools to extract them.” Ms Tan thus filed a OneService report on 20 Sept 2025.
Source: allnamestaken_88 on Reddit
On 5 Oct 2025, Marine Parade-Braddell Heights Town Council (MPBHTC) marked the case as resolved.
Initially happy that they took action, the resident later discovered that the trash was untouched.
Source: allnamestaken_88 on Reddit
She assumed it was an accidental mistake and filed another OneService report on 27 Dec 2025.
On 21 Jan, the MPBHTC once again marked the issue as resolved, yet the trash remained in the riser.
Source: allnamestaken_88 on Reddit
Infuriated, Ms Tan filed a third report that same day.
“I’m sharing here because I’m so disappointed with the shoddiness of the Town Council’s way of handling residents’ genuine issues,” she wrote.
On top of that, the MPBHTC used her own submitted photos as proof of the resolution. For her third report, she submitted a photo which included three of her fingers extended, so it would be “obvious” when reused.
Image courtesy of Ms Tan
“It’s so annoying that this simple case of trash clearance has taken four months,” said Ms Tan. She also explained to MS News that MPBHTC had resolved her previous OneService reports satisfactorily.
MPBHTC told MS News that two separate lapses resulted in the cases being incorrectly marked as resolved.
For the 20 Sept 2025 report, the case was referred to the conservancy contractor.
“On that day, our cleaners attended to other cleaning requests, but the instruction to clear the 6th-floor riser was overlooked. The case was then mistakenly marked as resolved,” MPBHTC stated.
Image courtesy of Ms Tan
As for the 27 Dec 2025 report, the case was attended to on the same day as another report submitted on 28 Dec 2025 from the same unit.
While a 28 Dec 2025 request was carried out, the workers mistakenly cleared a riser on the wrong floor and incorrectly marked the issue as resolved yet again.
“We acknowledge that these oversights should not have occurred. This includes the usage of the resident’s submitted photo for the case closure. Proper verification should have been conducted before marking the case as resolved.”
Image courtesy of Ms Tan
Following the 21 Jan report, MPBHTC cleared the riser properly the next day. They also arranged for a visit with Ms Tan to speak on the miscommunication.
On 23 Jan, Ms Tan confirmed with MS News that the trash had been cleared. She added that staff from the Town Council also came by to apologise to her for the lapse.
Image courtesy of Ms Tan
To prevent a recurrence, the Town Council is tightening verification processes, improving the accuracy of work instructions, and strengthening supervision of case closures.
MPBHTC additionally stated that they would progressively carry out a town-wide spring cleaning, including cleaning and decluttering risers, staircase landings, and corridors.
Also read: Man caught on video littering from high-rise & urinating at Serangoon HDB corridor demands DNA proof
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Featured images courtesy of Ms Tan.