Meeting with NParks on 10 March 2021
We met with NParks on the evening of 10 March 2021 at their HQ. The entire RCC team was present, with QX and Kanghao presenting the bulk of our proposal, and the rest of us helped to field questions and clarify concerns.
Representing NParks was the Commissioner of Parks and Recreation and his team of senior directors and managers.
In line with our commitment to taking a community-led approach to the issue of Dairy Farm, we started off by sharing the findings and content of the recently-concluded survey in which more than 500 of you participated in. With that as our base, we then went into the legal portion examining the various liabilities and how we propose to address those, further bolstered by the infrastructural items such as signs, hardware and maintenance and an emergency response plan.
We then shared what we believe to be the most important part - which is education and equipping people with the right knowledge and skills so that they can practice climbing outdoors and using the crags in a safe and sustainable manner.
A summary of our proposal was shared in an earlier update, and can be accessed here.
On the whole, the presentation went smoothly with a few questions and concerns raised which we addressed to what we hope to be their satisfaction. The NParks team expressed their appreciation for what they felt was a very insightful and holistic approach to the situation. While they have not made a decision, they stated that the meeting was a productive one and are keen to continue the conversation to move things along. They also reiterated their thanks to the outdoor climbing community for our patience and also appealed for our understanding that this would be a process and not something that can be settled overnight.
We understand that the SMF has also met with NParks separately on 11 March 2021 to present their plan. Like the rest of you, we are not privy to the content of that meeting and we will all find out when they decide to share and provide some substantive updates.
Survey results & findings
We thank you all once again for participating in our survey. Your thoughts, feedback and opinions are extremely valuable to us and instrumental in helping us shape our plan and approach. We have prepared a PDF document with data visualizations which you can find here.
Again, we thank all of you for your support and patience. In the meantime, if you would like to get in touch, you can reach us via the contact form on our website or email us at rockclimberscollective@gmail.com . We will share more as soon as we have any information. Stay tuned for more updates!
Rock Climbers Collective SG | www.rockclimberscollectivesg.org