Budgeting for Petaling Jaya residents’ needs

MOST residents in Petaling Jaya, Selangor are hoping their city council prioritises on up-to-date and suitable amenities in the upcoming budget.

They are asking for neighbourhood park upgrades, eradication of potential mosquito-breeding areas, youth recreation activities, gotong-royong and community gardens among others.

These are among requests they want Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) to take note of when drawing up its budget for next year.

City folk’s requests were made through their representatives during a town hall session with MBPJ at the Petaling Jaya Civic Centre.

The session was attended by MBPJ department directors, councillors and Kampung Tunku assemblyman Lim Yi Wei.

Residents want MBPJ to turn the underused bus station in Petaling Jaya Old Town into a UTC.

MBPJ has five focus areas for its 2024 Budget namely environment and health, safe and obstruction-free city, economic and council revenue, and social and city digital management.

Kampung Sungai Kayu Ara village head Ramli Daud urged the city council to revive community activities and allocate more funding for them now that the Covid-19 pandemic was over.

“Activities such as gotong-royong are great because people from all walks of life come together to clean up the neighbourhood.

Kampung Cempaka doesn’t have a community hal for its 9,000 residents.

“We also want mosquito- breeding grounds eradicated. The community garden is another important activity I hope MBPJ will continue to support,” he said.

“The recycling project should be revived as it fosters discipline among residents to separate waste. It also helps the community to generate income for their activities.”

Asshilawati wants more youth and sporting activities.Also of concern to villagers were illegal traders as some were throwing coconut husks by the roadside, he said, proposing that MBPJ limit traders to a centralised area.

“They need to be given training and issued a licence. They can also benefit from MBPJ-organised activities such as training and business guidance.”

Representing the Zone 4 residents is Ahmad Farid Firdaus who wants MBPJ to instal CCTVs at less busy roads such as Tropicana Selatan, Lembah Subang 1 and 2.

“The street lights could be solar powered. There should also be sheltered walkways near all the schools,” he said.

He recommended that MBPJ provide free WiFi at areas such as Lembah Subang 1 and 2 as there were more low-income students living there who would benefit from it.

Representing the Damansara Jaya Residents and Owners Association, Dr Ong See Lian said guardrails by the drains were needed in the neighbourhood.

Azzam says his neighbourhood has close to 2,000 residents but no playground facilities.While the walkways by the drain near Atria Mall has guard rails, he said the deep drains in the housing areas did not.

“There are metal drain covers with handles on the walkways at Jalan SS22/41 obstructing the path. These are among the design failures.”

He said measures should be taken by the city council to ensure the entire neighbourhood was accessible by foot or bicycle within 15 minutes.

The public should be able to reach the business centre, schools and the parks without having to drive their cars, he said, adding that this would be the way towards Petaling Jaya achieving its goal of becoming a low-carbon city.

Now that free WiFi was a necessity especially in business centres, the public should have access to it, he said.

“Free WiFi will help the digital economy. This is being practised in cities of some developed countries.”

Abu Bakar says the city must cater for the needs of the ageing population.Ong hoped MBPJ would allocate funds to host more community events as it would help residents to bond.

A representative from Zone 6, which comprised SS23, SS24 and SS26 neighbourhoods, requested that CCTVs be installed at Jalan SS24/1, SS23/17, SS24/8 and SS24/9 as they were accident- prone areas.

He also requested MBPJ to host training such as smart phone classes for the elderly and more sports activities for the young.

Kampung Cempaka village head Theresa Lim said her village did not have a community hall.

There were 9,000 residents in the village and a hall was a necessity, she said.

“We want to use the hall for community events and also to conduct educational activities for residents,” she said.

Ramli wants the council to set aside more budget for community activities.She said requests for a community hall had been made since 2019.

Since there was an abandoned space on Jalan SS25/20, Lim said MBPJ should upgrade the space for the use of the wider community.

An SS2 resident representative called for the neighbourhood of 1,800 households to be better lit.

From Section 3, Salleh Osman wants MBPJ to turn the underutilised bus station in Petaling Jaya Old Town into an Urban Transformation Centre (UTC).

He said the neighbourhood was in need of community centre and a multi-storey carpark.

Salleh also requested for a government hospital in Section 51 since the city did not have one.

A resident from Taman Medan representing Zone 17, Asogan Subramanian said the neighbourhood could do with more solar panel lighting especially at the low-cost flats.

Notice boards, he said, should be installed to indicate emergency contact numbers such as for the nearest police station, adding that a space for food trucks to operate should be considered.

SS23, SS24 and SS26 residents want more CCTVs along accident-prone areas such as Jalan SS24/1.

Surau Al-Khairiyah chairman Azzam Ali said the PJS2 neighbourhood had close to 2,000 residents, but children lacked proper playground facilities at Flat C in Taman Medan Jaya.

“The children are playing at smaller spaces that have concrete tables – this is dangerous.

“The children want to play futsal and other team-based games but they lack the space to do so.

SS2 residents want the neighbourhood including backlanes to be better lit.

“It’s a densely populated area with many children and youths. They need space to play so we hope our request will be considered.”

Zone 21 resident Asshilawati Beli wants more youth-centric activities and sporting activities for her community.

Zone 22 representative Abu Bakar Abd Rahman said the city must be prepared to cater for the ageing population.

“We need housing, healthcare and digital empowerment for the elderly, too.”