Residents appeal to MB to settle issue

The Star 06/09/2002

IPOH: Ipoh Garden East residents are appealing to Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohd Tajol Rosli Ghazali to fulfil his promises made two years ago to settle the controversial issue of a light industrial estate being too near their houses. 

“We know that the mentri besar is very busy with his daily schedule but two years have passed since his visit and apart from the promise that a wall would be built, nothing else has materialised,” said its Action Committee on Environment and Safety chairman Teo Sin Hock. 

The residents have been protesting against the construction of 182 factories in the area since 1996 as some of the buildings were barely 10m from houses. 

They questioned how the authorities could have approved the factories located so close to their homes when the council’s development guidelines required industrial areas to be 20m from the edge of a road and separated by a “green belt”. 

Tajol Rosli had visited the site in August 2000 and ordered nine factories built nearest to the houses be demolished and that a wall be built between the houses and factories. 

He also asked that the developer carry out landscaping in six vacant factory lots and build an access road to the factories which does not go through the housing estate. 

Teo said the residents were not happy as part of the wall built by the developer was demolished in May this year and replaced by a seven metre long gate. 

“Workers and heavy vehicles can move in and out of the industrial estate using the gate. Those intending to go to the industrial estate can just park their cars beside it and this will cause traffic congestion along the road,” he said at a press conference recently. 

State Local Government Committee chairman Datuk Chang Ko Youn said the matter was delayed as the residents did not agree to a counter proposal put to them in March after a meeting among them, City Council officials including Datuk Bandar Datuk Talaat Husain and the developer, Northvale Sdn Bhd. 

Chang said the residents had rejected the new proposal of demolishing only some of the nine factories and converting the remaining lots into commercial buildings and also the construction of a road from the industrial area to the Bercham main road. 

Northvale Sdn Bhd spokesman said the company was trying to settle the problem amicably. 

He said the company had erected a 6m-long concrete wall costing about RM120,000 along Lintasan Perajurit 17 in May to act as a buffer zone between the houses and factories. 

He said four end-lot factory units at Block F, G, H and J with a total sales value of RM1.7mil along the same road would be demolished soon. 

He said a new access road about 1,000 feet-long would be built from Jalan Bercham to the industrial zone and this would prevent heavy vehicles from using residential roads. 

He said the two-lane access road estimated at RM600,000 was expected to be completed in November. 

He said the company had also agreed to surrender 0.1ha of land to the residents to be turned into a recreational park. 

“The building of the concrete wall, demolition of the four factories, and the new access road is costing the company not less than RM4mil. 

“We hope the residents will appreciate our efforts so that we could put a stop to their protests,” he told The Star. 

The company was also facing pressure from buyers who wanted to move in as soon as possible, he said. 

He said the controversy over the industrial zone had prevented the company from getting approval for the issuance of occupancy licences from the city council. 

He said residents need not be too worried about pollution as the industrial zone would be occupied mainly for warehouses, car service centres and packaging shops. 

He said the owners of 114 factory units under Phase One would start their business upon the completion of the access road. 

He said another 64 factory units under the Phase Two were now on sale.