We just want our Hills Preserved!

The Penang public just wants its hills preserved, guarded and cared for; we look to our state government to ensure that self-serving, profit-driven entrepreneurs take their ill-conceived plans elsewhere. Our future and the future of our children cannot be left in the hands of developers.
..........Penang Forum Steering Committee.....................
..............................27 August 2011........................................



The hill above which does not warrant any consideration as a steep slope now looks like this!



Ivory Towers continue to grow out of a steep slope. Where is the environmental impact study? Where is the regard for public safety? Who approved this development in the Batu Ferringhi district?

NST article 29-8-2011 with picture
GEORGE TOWN: A DAP state representative has taken the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) to task for approving hill slope development projects based on what he claims are flawed and outdated evaluation methods.
Tanjung Bungah assemblyman Teh Yee Cheu, known as an environmentalist here, said the approach had exposed thousands of residents on the island to potential landslide risks.
He had expressed his concern on account of the mushrooming of upscale development projects, with frequent cases of minor landslides, especially in the Tanjung Bungah and Batu Feringghi areas.
Teh said that the MPPP had failed to keep up with times in adopting more reliable landslide identification methods.
Speaking to reporters at a hill slope development in Solok Tan Jit Seng in Tanjung Bungah yesterday, he criticised the MPPP for giving the developers a free hand to exploit hill slopes.
In calling for an immediate halt for future hill-cutting to prevent further environmental degradation, Teh also hit out at unscrupulous developers who were exempted from submitting Environmental Impact Assessment reports upon sub-dividing their hill slope projects into smaller plots.
Teh showed the press three sets of research papers submitted by local and international institutions, which suggested MPPP needed a more comprehensive approach to prevent landslides at hill slope developments.
"The local council has failed to use more advanced tools to identify the looming landslide threat posed to residents.
"There are so many loopholes in the MPPP hill slope evaluation methods, causing developers to cut the hills indiscriminately."
Among the methods outlined in the papers were the application of geographical information system, a form of global positioning system as well as in-depth landslide risk analysis to identify high, moderate or low landslide areas.
He added the MPPP's approach of relying on geo-technical reports submitted by developers was no longer relevant.

MPPP rapped for failing to keep watch on hillside development

MPPP rapped for failing to keep watch on hillside development
By CHRISTINA CHIN
sgchris@thestar.com.my

GEORGE TOWN: An assemblyman here has taken the Penang Municipal Council to task for allegedly failing to monitor hillslope development in the state.
DAP’s Tanjung Bungah assemblyman Teh Yee Cheu said the council and developers must bear full responsibility if a landslide occurs.
“Although it was the previous state government that approved all the hillslope projects here, the state Town and Country Planning Department must be aware of danger-prone areas and the council must monitor the work that goes on there.
“Otherwise, if anything happens, they, together with the developer, must be accountable,” he told a press conference yesterday.
Teh claimed that when queried the relevant authorities recently, they couldn’t even identify the landslide-prone areas, much less report on the projects there.
“When I asked an officer how such areas were identified, he appeared dumbfounded but later said it was based on sight (whether the development and hillslope area looked dangerous).”
He said there must be a proper plan to identify high-risk areas and standard operating procedures (SOP) must be in place to monitor hillslope projects before it was too late.
Teh urged the council to refer to the recent environmental research utilising the geographic information system (GIS), experts and non-governmental organisations if it did not have the relevant knowledge.
“Clearly, the council has no expertise to monitor hillslope development. They should establish a geo-technical committee instead of simply relying on the Institute of Civil Engineering (Ikram).
“Whenever the council needed a geo-technical report, they will refer to Ikram, and when there is a dispute, the council will ask the developer to get a second opinion from a private consultant who would usually not even bother to visit the site and just refer to the Ikram report,” he said.
Teh denied he was hitting out at state Local Government and Traffic Management Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow and state Health, Welfare, Environment and Caring Society Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh over the matter.
In an immediate response, Chow said the council could not be setting up numerous specialist committees when it was more efficient to refer technical issues to other expert agencies.
“The council is like a clinic. When a patient comes in with a complicated health problem, he needs to be referred to a specialist because we do not have the expertise to treat him.”

Sad day for Residents of Tanjong Bungah and Batu Ferringhi

It would seem that there is no justice in Penang as far as development goes.
We have Ivory building their high density housing towers in Batu Ferringhi we have Asia Pacific land building their illegal office block on mount pleasure and not one person is prepared to lift finger to stop it.
We really did paint paradise and put up a parking lot!

GEORGE TOWN: The Tanjung Bungah Residents’ Association (TBRA) who failed in its bid in the High Court for the status of Tanjung Bungah’s locality in the Penang Structure Plan 2020 to be amended.
Justice Yaacob Md Sam allowed an application by defendants - the state government, the Town and Country Planning Department director and the state Planning Committee to strike out the suit brought by TBRA.
The application was allowed with TBRA ordered to pay costs of RM5,000.
TBRA’s chairman George Patrick Alexander Aeria and co-chairman Tan Jin Aik, who brought the action on behalf of the association, were the plaintiffs in the suit.
In his ruling, Yaacob held that the TBRA did not commence the right mode of action against the defendants.
He said TBRA should have sued the defendants by way of a judicial review and not by way of an originating summons.
Yaacob also said the TBRA had also brought the action way past 40 days of the grace period allowed after the plan was approved and gazetted.
He said there was inordinate delay on the part of the plaintiffs in bringing the action.
TBRA had only filed the suit against the defendants on June 25, last year, which was about three years after the plan was approved and gazetted.
TBRA, represented by Lalitha Menon and Agatha Foo, brought the action against the defendants to determine the status of the locality under the structure plan.
Among others, they sought a declaration that a diagram which indicated that Tanjung Bungah was in the Primary Development Corridor (PDC), and not in the Secondary Development Corridor (SDC), as not valid.
The plaintiffs also want a declaration that a diagram in the structure plan which was gazetted on June 28, 2007 had obvious mistakes and was erroneous in law as it contradicted the statements in the structure plan.
They want another declaration that the SDC should start from Tanjung Bungah to Teluk Bahang and not from Mar Vista to Teluk Bahang as shaded in a diagram of the gazetted plan.
In his affidavit, Aeria said when the draft plan was drawn up, Tanjung Bungah was under the SDC but when the plan was approved and gazetted, a diagram showed that the locality was shaded as being under the PDC.
He said the density of the PDC was between 30 to 120 housing units per acre while the density for the SDC 15 units per acre.
He said by having the locality under the PDC , it would create a bad impact in the lives of the Tanjung Bungah residents as numerous problems would arise out of the massive development there.
TRBA’s lawyers had contended that the association was not able to file the action via a judicial review within the 40-day period as it did not know of the changes of the structure plan which was approved and gazetted.
In their statement of defence, the defendants said the action by the plaintiffs was an abuse of court process and they had no right to initiate the action without first exhausting domestic remedies available under the Town and Country Planning Act 1976.