The Nee Soon Town Council (NSTC) has responded to Mothership.sg's queries about the allegations that an Yishun resident made in his 20 minute video tirade against his neighbour as well as the NSTC.

"We refer to the article titled 'S’pore man releases video detailing epic 3-year feud involving ‘barbarian’ neighbour and government conspiracies' and your media query. There has been a series of untrue allegations made by Mr Richard Boo against Nee Soon Town Council (TC), its staff and MPs of Nee Soon GRC.

The Town Council is disappointed by Mr Boo’s continuous spread of false and baseless allegations. Mr Boo is aware that there is an ongoing dispute between him and his neighbour and has sought to use social media platforms to paint himself out to be the victim in this case without putting forth the facts.

Mr Boo has also ignored the numerous times the TC officers and MPs have attempted in good faith to settle the dispute between the parties. Based on the facts below, we have never sided with either party in the dispute. Yet, Mr Boo has deliberately twisted the facts to create a false and misleading impression of the TC, its staff and MPs of Nee Soon GRC.

In late Dec 2014, the TC issued Mr Boo a final letter (Annex A), indicating that we regret that Mr Boo is unable to accept our rationale, explanations and alternatives. We also indicated that given the protracted debate, it would be unproductive to continue the correspondence – a position we have maintained."

This is the Town Council's position on neighbourly disputes:

"The TC tries to mediate between both parties. We have asked that all parties remove their offending items to ensure fair and equal treatment of everyone using the common property.

Our position across the Town is that:

a) We ask residents to support one another, while respecting mutual privacy and reasonable use of common space in the estate.

b) We will intervene to advise neighbours on reasonable use, and will enforce the by-laws, as a last resort, if neighbours are unable to arrive at a compromise,

c) Enforcement of the rules across all households affected ensures that all families are treated equally, without preferential treatment shown to one or another."

So what happened?

For such a protracted saga (3 years) that involved an almost obsessive use of cameras, the summation isn't really that complicated. Simply, two neighbours really didn't like each other.

Before we delve further into the ordeal, here is the TC's stand on the installation of cameras in public space.

"Installation of CCTV cameras are not permitted on common property - which includes the common corridors and areas outside of flats.

Exceptions may apply as long as the CCTV is installed within an individual's own private property, without inconvenience or intrusion into the privacy of the neighbours. These installations are only for limited periods of time and applications can be made to HDB.

...

The Police may install CCTV for the purpose of deterring crime, however, they would need to seek prior approval from the Town Council before such installations can be made."

We've segmented the actions of the 3 main players in this unfortunate episode, Boo (the video maker), Koh (Boo's neighbour involved in the saga) and the NSTC.

Koh

-Placed his plants near Boo's house, refused to move it when Boo wrote to the TC and its property officer asked him to move it.

-Smashed Boo's CCTV cameras with hammer - this was caught on Boo's CCTV.

-Eventually removes plants.

Boo

-Installs CCTV after window panes from his unit smashed.

-Pays a fine for not taking down the CCTV he installed, but refused to remove CCTV even after multiple warnings, no less than 15 emails, from TC.

-According to Wanbao, Boo allegedly pushed Koh down a flight of stairs, leaving him unconscious and hospitalised for 6 days on September 2015. In his video, Boo claimed that Koh fell while chasing after him. This case is under Police investigation.

Nee Soon Town Council

-Sent letters to two neighbours who really should be acting a bit more mature.

Top image from Boo's YouTube

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