Judge finds owner of service road at Parklane mall ‘unreasonable’ for charging garbage trucks access fees

The daily task of rubbish collection at Parklane Shopping Mall became difficult after the owner of the service road that leads to the bin centre began charging garbage trucks parking fees to access the road.

- Selina Lum Senior Law Correspondent

Kosma Holdings, which owns the road and the carpark of the strata-titled mall, also installed structures to prevent rubbish bins from being manually wheeled out past the carpark barrier to waiting garbage trucks.

It imposed a $1,000 “penalty” for each incident of unauthorised entry.

Kosma later also began charging fees ranging from $20 to $100 - on top of parking charges - for access to the loading bay, which includes the bin centre.

On Sept 17, High Court Judge Philip Jeyaretnam said Kosma’s conduct has been unreasonable and has impaired the effective use of the mall.

The management corporation of the Selegie Road mall had taken Kosma to court to seek a right of way, also known as an easement, over the service road.

Represented by lawyer Subir Singh Grewal, the management corporation relied on a legislative provision introduced in 2019 that empowers the court to create a right of way if the easement was reasonably necessary for the effective use of the land.

The management corporation also sought an injunction to restrain Kosma from impeding the entry of vehicles into the loading bay; an order to remove the structures it had installed; and a declaration that the total penalty of $6,000 imposed on it for six occasions of alleged unauthorised entry is “irrecoverable”.