28 June 2008Town Council PersonnelTanjong Pagar Town CouncilGood morning Sir/Mdm,RE: Report on the recent investigation on the level ofelderly-friendliness in Tanjong Pagar.We are …….and …… from Raffles Institution. We are now studying on ageing population and we have done an investigation on the level of elderly-friendliness in Tanjong Pagar Plaza. We want to report our findings in this investigation so that the town council can serve the elderly people better.Tanjong Pagar Plaza is one of the oldest building areas in Singapore where many elderly people live in. Therefore, it is crucial for Tanjong Pagar Plaza to be elderly-friendly due to the large number of elder people live in this area. However, through our investigation, we find out that Tanjong Pagar Plaza is not very elderly-friendly. The criteria we base on are whether lifts provide enough convenience for the elderly people, whether the market is safe for the elderly people, whether the supermarket can prevent the elderly people from tumbling, whether there are benches for the elderly people to rest, whether the equipment in the fitness corner are suitable for the elderly people, whether the clinics are locate near to the HDB buildings and whether the young people are willing to help the elderly people. All our findings are accompanied with pictures which can be found in the visual presentation.There are many things in Tanjong Pagar that are elderly-friendly. Elderly people do not have much strength and they might accidently tumble over when carrying heavy stuff. Therefore, it will be convenient if there is something that can prevent that tragedy from happening. In the picture shown in our visual presentation, a man-made slope is built so that the elderly people will not likely to tumble over when exiting the supermarket. This is one of the aspects of being elderly-friendly.As we have stated in the paragraph above, elderly people do not have enough strength and they might get tired easily. If there are not enough benched in the neighbourhood, elderly people will not have the chance to rest before continuing with their task. Fortunately, referring to the picture in our presentation, many benches are built along the pavement so that the elderly people get the chance to rest at any time they want. This is another aspect of being elderly-friendly.Elderly people tend to get sick easily. Therefore, it will be convenient for the elderly-people if clinics are built near the buildings so that the elderly-people will visit them very conveniently. Referring to the picture shown in our presentation, there are two clinics, one traditional Chinese clinic and the other Western clinic, are built just below the HDB flats. The elderly people can visit either of them conveniently without travelling for a long distance. This is also an aspect of being elderly-friendly.However, although there are many things that are elderly-friendly, many other things in Tanjong Pagar are not so elderly-friendly. Lifts in Tanjong Pagar do not provide enough convenience for the elderly people. Elder people do not have enough strength to climb stairs and therefore, lifts should stop at every floor. However, as in the picture shown, the lift does not stop at every floor and furthermore, it can only reach up to 22 storey. There are elderly people who live on 24 storey and they are forced to climb two levels which is actually a labourious task to them. Therefore, the lifts do not provide enough convenience for the elderly peop...