GEORGE TOWN, Feb 21 — The Penang Island City Council’s (MBPP) early publicity exercise for its draft local plan does not comply with the Town and Country Planning Act 1976, according to Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM).
Penang PRM vice chairman Ravinder Singh said today Section 12A(a) of the act requires MBPP to include its proposals for the plan in the early publicity exercise.
“The early publicity the MBPP is holding now did not have any specific proposals for the whole island, instead they provide blank feedback papers for the public to fill in,” he said in a press conference here.
He said the public is expected to submit its own proposals to MBPP instead of the city council presenting its proposals and asking for the public’s feedback on it.
“They are asking the public to do the work of town planners and submit their proposals and ideas to the city council,” he said.
He said the MBPP is required by law to showcase its proposals for public scrutiny and feedback during the early publicity exercise.
“The public needs to know which areas are zones as residential, which are industrial and any proposed projects such as workers’ hostels in which areas,” he said.
He accused the MBPP of keeping what it is proposing to include in the local plan a secret from the public.
Currently, the early publicity for the draft local plan is being held at various locations on the island until February 29.
Ravinder said the duration of the early publicity — five weeks starting from January 23 — is not sufficient.
“This is Penang island’s first local plan, why is it being rushed through in such a hasty manner?” he asked.
He called on MBPP to put this early publicity exercise on hold and prepare proper blueprints outlining its proposals for the local plan.
“They should restart the early publicity to be held for six months by going down on the ground to gather feedback directly from the people, show their blueprint for each area and township to get their feedback and record all feedback from the public,” he said.
He said the city council can only start preparing the draft local plan 2035 after gathering feedback from the public based on the blueprint.
“People have waited 16 years for the local plan, they can wait till the end of the year for a proper, well-researched local plan that will control development so that it brings improvements to the quality of life and stop haphazard approvals of projects all over the island,” he said.
The last draft Penang Island local plan was completed in September 2007 under the then Barisan Nasional state government but before the plan was gazetted, Pakatan Harapan (PH) took over the state administration in a landslide victory in 2008.
The PH state government only presented its first Penang Island draft local plan for public display in 2022.
The public display of the draft local plan was held from October 2022 to January 10 last year.
It elicited criticisms and negative feedback from various civil society groups due to its numerous spelling errors and weaknesses such as non-sustainable development plans that do not benefit the people.
In June last year, Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the draft local plan would be redrawn.
MBPP had called for a tender to appoint a consultant to prepare the draft local plan at the end of last year.
The local plans are statutory plans that contain policies and strategic planning of the state structure plan with a more detailed land use map for the Local Planning Authorities.
