Council cracks down on billboard blight

THE Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) has started its blitz on illegal billboard structures around Penang island.

MPPP councillor Ong Ah Teong said the first to go would be an illegal structure constructed along the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway.

“We’ve given the relevant parties ample time to apply for licences from the council,” he said.

“In June last year, we announced that starting this year, action would be taken to remove billboards and advertisements that do not comply with the council’s technical requirements and specifications.

“Today, enforcement starts,” he said during a site visit yesterday.

He said a black metal structure erected on a slope along the expressway must be removed immediately as it did not comply with the conditional approval given by the council.

“The application was to erect a unipole but I do not know what this thing that has been put up is.

“It is on the wrong side of the road and the design and size differ from what was originally proposed.

“We will write to the company responsible and ask them to remove it within three days failing which, the MPPP will do it and bill them for the cost later,” he said.

He added that the council “means business”.

He said that from next week, the council’s enforcement team would go around the island to check on the billboards.

Those that do not comply with the specifications or have been put up illegally will have huge red stickers slapped on them.

“The parties responsible will then be asked to remove the billboards,” he said.

On a separate matter, he said a row of 33 trees along the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway had been pruned recently.

He said neither the council nor the Public Works Department (JKR) were behind the pruning.

“We suspect that it was done by the owner of a billboard nearby as the tree branches could be blocking the advertisement.

“The expressway is actually under the purview of the JKR and they have confirmed that the pruning was done at night by an unidentified group,” he said.

He called on the JKR to investigate the matter and take stern action against those responsible.

“Meanwhile, I will refer the matter to the MPPP’s legal department to see if there is anything we can do.

“Such an act is against the ‘Cleaner, Greener, Penang’ initiative,” he said.