Stepping up maintenance works in housing areas
Published on: Thursday, May 02, 2024
By: Sidney Skinner
The Council’s grass-cutting team put their backs into dealing with the overgrown playground in Taman Villa Intan.
THE District Council will step up efforts to maintain the common land, including the playground, around homes in a Papar neighbourhood.
The Public Works Department and City Hall, on the other hand, had called on the government concessionaire to exercise similar diligence when it comes to cleaning the roadside drains in one part of Inanam and Kepayan.
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Their action was prompted by feedback about the overgrown grass on the verges in Taman Villa Intan in Papar, as well as the clogged drains along Jalan Nountun and Lorong Rampai.
Three aggrieved rate-payers separately provided Hotline with the location of the unkempt road-shoulders and blocked drains in their areas. This information was forwarded to the Council, PWD and City Hall.
Staff with the government concessionaire in the midst of raking out the weeds which had formed in this drain along Lorong Rampai.
A Council spokesman said an inspection was made of Taman Villa Intan, shortly after it was contacted by the media.
“Our staff noted that the grass on many of the road-shoulders and at the playground was overgrown,” he said.
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Six workers from the agency returned to the neighbourhood later that same day to deal with the overgrown greenery.
When asked how often the common areas in Taman Villa Intan were attended to, the spokesman said the Council tried to have this land maintained twice a month on a rotating schedule throughout the district.
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“We do not have enough manpower to consistently keep to this schedule.
“Given the extensiveness of our rating area, the six-man crew, which looks after those residential properties under our jurisdiction, cannot be everywhere at once.”
In the case of Jalan Nountun, a PWD spokesman said the roadside drains were maintained on a biannual basis.
“The first cleaning cycle for 2024 was completed last Thursday,” he said on April 30.
A group of the workers from one of the Department’s concessionaires removed the vegetation which had formed inside the drains, before having them de-sludged, according to him.
He said the firm was responsible for clearing the drains along a 2.2km span of the stretch.
“The second cycle will be carried out in October.”
Meanwhile, another government concessionaire dealt with the frontyard drains in Taman Selesa, in Kepayan, earlier in April.
A spokeswoman for City Hall’s Landscaping Department said this work was carried out a day after the agency alerted the company’s management that the drains were clogged with weeds.
She explained that the firm was responsible for maintaining the drains along the housing roads in the State Capital, while the agency attended to those behind residences under its jurisdiction.
The former structures were cleaned according to a fixed schedule, with the same being done to the latter once every six months, according to her.
“Our workers will try to come in even before the scheduled cleaning, to deal with any complaints involving the back-yard drains,” she said.
When it came to the grass on the drain reserves around residential properties, the spokeswoman said this maintenance was carried out by City Hall staff on a monthly basis.
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