Why has Tapah Local Council refused to allow local residents to build an Arch at the entrance of Chedering town?

In many new villages, it is the norm to see an arch at the entrance of the village.

However, such an arch was never built in Chendering New Village.

Although Chendering is a state seat where MCA has won for many terms, the building of the arch has never being given importance.

Thus the local Residents Association has initiated some meetings among the locals and the people agreed to build an arch at the entrance of the Chendering town with the local peoples own money.

The Residents Association made a formal application to the local authority on 26thMay2009. A fee of RM270 has been paid for processing of the application.

The arch issue has become a big issue among the locals. The Arch has been designed by qualified consulting engineers.

Unfortunately, the Association was informed via a letter dated 6thAugust2010 that the application has been rejected by the Tapah Local Council on the following grounds:-

“Adalah dimaklumkan permohonan Tuan telah dibincangkan dalam mesyuarat Jawatankuasa Pusat Setempat Bil. 12/2010 pada 29 Julai 2010. Mesyuarat telah menolak permohonan Tuan dengan justifikasi berikut:

i. Dikhuatiri kemampuan pihak Tuan untuk menjalankan kerja penyelenggaran secara berkala dengan baik memandangkan ianya melibatkan kos yang tinggi dan kepakaran tenaga kerja. Sekiranya pintu gerbang tersebut tidak diselenggara, ia boleh menyebabkan strukturnya rosak dan terbiar usang; dan
ii. Sekiranya pintu gerbang ini dibina oleh individu atau sebuah badan NGO, dikhuatiri apabila berlakunya kemalangan, struktur binaan pintu gerbang tersebut runtuh atau dilanggar, Pihak Berkuasa Tempatan akan dipertanggungjawabkan.


Both the above reasons are unreasonable and unjustifiable.

The Residents Association has got sponsors and the local people are capable to raise the monies to fund the project.

On the second issue the occurrences of accidents; let me inform the local authority that the Consultant Engineers have taken into account the safety aspect before giving the final copy for submission to the local authority.

If the grounds given by the Tapah local authority can be accepted, I wonder how many arches in other new villages in the country would have been approved and constructed.

I have advised Richard Leong the Chairman of the Resident’s Association
1) to appeal against the rejection to the Tapah Local Council
2) convene a meeting with NGO’s and interest groups to further discuss and how best to handle and sort out this matter.
3) To write and ask the State Exco and MB Perak whether they will review the local council decision to reject this application? If not why not?

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