Evelyn Choo Channel NewsAsia 15 Sep 11;
SINGAPORE: The National Parks Board (NParks) said it has received more than 200 suggestions on how to co-create a "City in a Garden" since it launched a public engagement exercise three weeks ago.
And more ideas are welcomed as it is a year-long exercise.
Kong Yit San, assistant chief executive at NParks, said: "We hope to have this much longer so that we can have more ideas coming in. At this stage, we are not sharing in detail about the suggestions that have come in, so that we do not steer people's mindsets or perceptions of how parks should be in the future."
About half of the suggestions received were on enhancing parks and streetscapes - such as planting more trees that provide shade.
About a quarter were on optimising urban spaces for greenery and recreation, like more rooftop gardens and solar panels on top of HDB flats.
In the meantime, NParks has launched the inaugural Parks Festival, starting this Saturday, to get more Singaporeans to visit more than 300 parks here.
The nine-day festival will include activities such as gardening workshops, art installations and a night forest exploration.
On the last two days of the festival, NParks is organising a mass cleanup of some of the major parks. It's hoped that this would foster a sense of ownership of the flora and fauna in Singapore.
- CNA/cc
Now, more reasons to hang out at a park at night
Bonfire, forest trek part of Parks Festival
Straits Times 16 Sep 11;
TO BEAT the heat, some events at the nine-day Parks Festival that will start tomorrow will be held at night.
The inaugural event, organised by the National Parks Board (NParks), aims to attract visitors to the more than 300 parks in Singapore.
Organisers say the hot tropical weather can often put a damper on nature activities.
'The biggest obstacle to people going to parks is the weather, whereas in cooler countries they would not mind going out in the midday sun,' said Mr Kong Yit San, assistant chief executive officer of NParks' park management and lifestyle cluster.
With this in mind, night-time activities have been arranged for park-goers to enjoy. They include a water art installation entitled WaterFire at Bedok Reservoir Park, where braziers in the river will be lit to create a mass bonfire, and a night-time forest exploration as part of an overnight camp at HortPark.
The festival also aims to bring greenery and nature closer to those thronging their usual haunts in the city.
This will be done through a container gardening workshop at City Square Mall and an art installation at Raffles Place Park. This will be created by the Sculpture Society and dedicated to the crimson sunbird, a native bird species.
Four-seater swing sets promoting the festival have been placed along the pedestrian walkway outside Ion Orchard and Ngee Ann City in Orchard Road.
Mr Kong explained: 'We want to remind people that there are parks where you can have leisure pursuits instead of just going shopping or to the cinema. Our goal is to find parks for everyone - for people to find a park they like through the events.'
Other activities being held as part of the festival include guided walks, such as an edible and medicinal plant tour, and a butterfly trail.
Most of the more than 90 planned activities are free.
In his National Day Rally speech last month, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong presented a vision of the country becoming a 'City in a Garden', and of parks and gardens in the heartland being linked with greenery across the country.
NParks' call for ideas three weeks ago, as part of its project to create more green spaces and improve existing ones, has garnered more than 200 responses.
These include suggestions to plant mini-gardens on top of bus-stop shelters, and planting more fruit-bearing trees in heartland gardens so they may attract smaller animals such as squirrels and small birds.
Small habitat ponds with their own ecosystems could also be set up around the heartlands, respondents suggested.
And some cyclists would like to see a cycling track connecting parks around the island.
About a quarter of the ideas received were on optimising urban spaces for greenery and recreation, such as having more rooftop gardens and turning schools into green buildings, NParks said.
KEZIA TOH
