Tg Bunga folk: Please save our homes

Alarmed by errors and discrepancies in the Penang Structure Plan 2007, a group of Tanjung Bunga residents want the current government to rectify them and gazette the area as a low density secondary corridor of development.

The Tanjong Bunga Residents' Association (TBRA) chairperson George Aeria said the residents feared that the inconsistencies in the structure plan could expose their area to unrestricted and unlimited projects and become more congested with traffic and high rise structures.

He claims that the previous Barisan Nasional administration had re-zoned and gazetted the area in the structure plan as a high density primary development corridor.

However, Aeria said the public copy for examination earlier on display, showed that the location was part of a lower density secondary corridor.

He said under the original text, the primary development corridor encompassed areas between the city and Tanjong Tokong, while the secondary corridor covered areas between Tanjung Bunga, beginning at Tanjung Bunga Hotel, and Teluk Bahang.

However, now, he said, the diagram shown within the structure plan illustrated that the primary corridor encompassed areas between Georgetown and the end of Tanjung Bunga stopping at the Mar Vista.

'Correct past mistakes'

"We now call on the current DAP government to rectify the wrongs committed by the past state government in the structure plan.


"The state government should acknowledge this error and follow through with the original texts in the drafting of the local plan," said Aeria in a press statement today.

He said this was necessary to ensure all decisions made by the planning officers were guided according to the amendments.

"The plan must show that Tanjong Bunga is in the secondary development corridor, which means all future projects in the area must comply with guidelines limiting the number of houses to maximum 15 units per acre.

"Failure to undertake this revision of an earlier error would mean that the current state government is intent on confirming the error and aims to mislead the public by following the past state administration's use of an irregular diagram that does not comply with the text and the plan," said Aeria.

Early this month Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said that Tanjung Bunga would not suffer the pain of the new housing policy, which had increased the density of housing projects.

Referring to the statement, Aeria said Lim had only confused the public over the whole issue.

Confusion over which plan

"Since Tanjong Bunga is in a secondary corridor in the original text of the structure plan, the new housing policy of higher density can't be implemented.

"If implemented, it will violate the structure plan's original aim to limit 15 units per acre," he said.

Lim's government has already approved the previous government's altered structure plan on Dec 19 last year.

Referring to this and to a press statement by state executive councillor Chow Kon Yeow, Aeria said "it clearly showed that the DAP state administration was now giving precedence to the modified diagram over the original displayed text."

He said if the current state government failed to rectify the error, Tanjung Bunga would be face high volume of traffic, population and high rise structures.

He argued since the existing the land space cannot accommodate new roads, heavy infrastructure work had to be carried out by cutting down hills, which fill the sea with earth and degrade the environment.

As it is, he said the residents were already facing environmental degradation after hills were cut down.

Extensive cutting of hills, he said would worsen the existing soil erosion and cause heavy loads of mud and silt being washed into the sea.

He said high density development in Tanjung Bunga would adversely affect infrastructure networks such as water supply, electricity and telecommunications, and basic amenities and facilities such as hospitals, post offices, government offices, schools and fire stations.

Aeria appealed to the state government to reconsider its plans and return Tanjung Bunga back to the original plan.