Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Have your say in Tanjong Bunga's Development Plan

PRESS STATEMENT

WORKSHOP ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF PENANG ISLAND’S NORTH COAST, Paradise Sandy Beach Resort, TANJONG BUNGA, PENANG, APRIL 26, 2008

TBRA Tanjong Bunga Residents’ Association is pleased to announce a one-day Workshop on Sustainable Development of Penang Island’s North Coast to be held on April 26, 2008 at Paradise Sandy Beach Resort, Tanjong Bunga, Penang.

The workshop is initiated by ADUN for Tanjong Bunga, YB Teh Yee Cheu, and hosted by Paradise Sandy Beach Resort.

The objective of the workshop is to chart the direction for the sustainable development of Penang Island’s north coast by bringing together the local community and other stakeholders to establish a common vision for the future.

The workshop is designed as an inclusive and participatory way to plan for the development of this environmentally sensitive area.

People living in the island’s north coast including relevant MPPP and government departments are invited to participate in group discussions on a wide array of topics concerning the livelihoods of fishermen, the future of local communities, tourism products and hotel development, quality of sea water, hill-cutting and soil erosion, infrastructure, housing, traffic and other related developments.

Proposals resulting from the workshop will be submitted to the Chief Minister who chairs the State Planning Committee for consideration and incorporation into the draft Local Plan that is now being drafted by KL-based consultants which the MPPP has appointed for several years.

TBRA and its partner Residents’ Associations have complained about the ad-hoc and unsustainable development that MPPP and the previous State government have been allowing without the guidance of a democratically approved Local Plan. It is hoped that this workshop will create a new direction for town planning that is transparent, people-centred and can be emulated by other local groups and residents associations.

The workshop will start at 9.30am and end at 4.30pm. Please send email to tanjongbunga@yahoo.com or contact YB Teh’s service centre at No.3, Jalan Chee Swee Ee, off Vale of Tempe, Tanjong Bunga, to register if you wish to participate in this workshop. Places are limited and priority will be given to those who represent organisations.

Dailogue with YB Liew Chin Tong



About 30 people gathered at Diamond Villa for a meeting with the Opposition MP, YB Liew Chin Tong who represented the Chief Minister yesterday (April 8). TBRA initiated the meeting and invited members from other RA's in Tanjong Bunga and Batu Ferringi which included Diamond Villa, Pearl View, Horizon Towers, Mt. Evergreen and Regency.

Chairman of TBRA, Mr. Lim Hooi Siang, who welcomed members present reiterated the numerous complaints that TBRA had submitted to the former State Government and listed the issues raised in the letter to the present Chief Minister. YB Liew responded to a number of the issues which he said are being looked into by the relevant auhtorities or expecting imminent action. The members present wanted more pro-active measures in particular the control of hill-cutting and development of hill-slopes and controling building heights which have been shooting above 40 storeys.


It is the first dialogue and we hope to have more regular ones to monitor developments.

Danger on Jalan Tanjong Bunga if new access road is allowed

MPPP's Engineering Department has replied to our letter dated 22 December 2007 regarding the above matter which is the subject of the planning application on Lot 418, Jalan Tanjung Bunga (opposite the Penang Swimming Club). It says: "This letter's intention is to confirm that the government is studying the developer's proposal and examining the safety aspects that are raised in your letter. As the road proposed for the stated development will connect to federal road (Jalan Tanjung Bunga), approval of the JKR Headquarters will be required. At this juncture, approval has not been given for a road connecting the proposed development to Jalan Tanjung Bunga."

According to the practice of JKR, a service road alongside the main Jalan Tanjung Bunga is normally required for any development abutting an arterial road. Thus you can see that Penang Swimming Club has provided a service road even though it has only a narrow strip of land, as in developments like Copthorne Hotel, the Cove, etc. Likewise Lot 418 would also be required to provide a service road if it is to be accessed from Jalan Tanjung Bunga, but would be impossible due to the site's topography.

Friday, April 04, 2008

FORUM TOWARDS A BETTER PENANG

This is a notice from Aliran:
PENANG FORUM

Date: 13 April 2008 (Sunday)
Time: 8.15am to 4.30pm
Place: Disted College (Jalan Macalister/Jalan Cantonment)
Fee: RM5/participant to cover lunch and refreshments (payable on the day)
Registration: Phone 04-658 5251 (from Tuesday to Saturday during office hours) or email aliran@streamyx.com

Programme: See below
Organised by: the two dozen-odd NGOs who organised last year's Pesta Rakyat Merdeka.
Who should participate: Anyone and everyone interested in helping to chart a better future for Penang.
How to prepare: Think about concrete plans of action in areas which concern you, which can be presented to the new state government or
other state agencies.


Join us at the Penang Forum to debate and propose plans of action on how NGOs and other groups can work with the new Penang Government to implement people-centred development and to promote more democratic, participatory and transparent governance.

We will be looking at issues including environment, transport and urban issues, governance, women, workers, disabled, youth and
students, and arts,culture and heritage.

The purpose of the 13 April forum is to start a process that would enable us to we establish our own agendas and plans of action for consideration by the state government and its agencies; we would be looking to develop follow-up action (for example: the formation of specialised working groups to further develop proposals on particular topics) and to establish a regular official scheduled forum of exchange with the state government so that our plans and proposals can be systematically fed in and discussed.

Please forward this to anyone you think may be interested.

Forward to a better Penang! Together we can make a difference!

Thursday, April 03, 2008

TBRA to meet new YBs

TBRA will be meeting the new ADUN for Tanjong Bunga YB Teh Yee Cheu and the MP for Bukit Bendera YB Liew Chin Tong in the coming weeks to discuss development planning and environmental issues. We hope that like the new Selangor government, the new Penang State Government would also put a cap on hillslope developments.and review all the environmental degradation that has been allowed in the past years in the Telok Bahang-Batu Ferringhi-Tanjong Bunga corridor.