Up in arms over felled trees

Jalan 19/32 resident Michael Lee, 51, who has been in the area for about 25 years, said the trees were cut down to make way for road-widening project and new pavements.

“I don’t see the point of widening the road when it would all come to a bottleneck at the Jalan SS2/24 junction,” said Lee.

He added that with the widening of the roads, the row of parking in front of the shoplots were removed and customers frequenting the restaurants in the area had resorted to parking their cars at the housing area.

“It was bad before and now it’s going to be worse for us,” said Lee, who had submitted a petition with more than 30 signatures to the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) in protest of the tree-cutting.

He said the contractors in charge of widening the roads could have at least maintained the trees when they widened the road.

“These trees have been around for so many years and the MBPJ isn’t even trying to preserve them. It doesn’t even look like they are going to re-plant the trees,” said Lee.

When contacted, MBPJ councillor Mak Khuin Weng, said the upgrading work and installation of pavements were part of the requirements stated in the planning permission to build a shopping mall nearby.