City Hall finally acts on collapsed wall
Published on: Thursday, July 08, 2021
By: Sidney Skinner
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2016: This Taman Dixon home owner (left) joins City Hall staff as they inspect the collapse of the retaining wall in September.
2017: Some of the affected rate-payers meet with Mayor Yeo in November.
Some of the residents even reached out to a local politician, at one stage, when no action was forthcoming from the agency. A request was most recently made to the Mayor in April, when she went to buy some potted plants from a horticulturist who lives in the neighbourhood. A homeowner there provided Hotline with copies of the letters which had been sent to City Hall over the years. This correspondence was forwarded to the agency. A spokesman for the City Hall’s Engineering Department said it intended to have the structure reinstated so that it “buttressed the slope more effectively”. “We also plan to repair the drainage and sewerage system in the area which was damaged when the wall fell,” he said. He said City Hall had received an allocation under the Twelfth Malaysia Plan for this purpose. “The development plan has been completed and was submitted to our Contract Tender and Acquisitions Department earlier this year,” he said on July 7. “We are still waiting for the plan to be approved before we can call for a tender.”
2018: YB Phoong also came to have a look at the destabilised slope in October.
HSU of Luyang said the retaining wall gave way on September 11, 2016, and the incident was reported to City Hall two days later. “Some officers came to inspect the damage shortly thereafter,” he said. “They had the stones, strewn about the compound, stacked into a pile and placed a canvas over the debris.” He said only one homeowner was affected when the wall first fell. “She was made to understand that City Hall needed to source for an allocation to restore the wall as its budget for the year had been exhausted.” More of the slope came down by the following month, creating problems for three other homeowners in Taman Dixon and another from the adjacent Taman Century. The five ratepayers petitioned City Hall on November 22, 2016, to intervene for fear that a landslide might ensue and bury their houses.
2019: Another group of City Hall officers come to check on the damage in May.
One of these individuals engaged an engineering consultant whose firm estimated, at that time, that the remedial works, including the reconstruction of the wall, would cost in the region of RM265,000. Hsu said a letter about these findings was submitted to City Hall on 13, December 2016. When nothing was done by November the following year, some of the affected homeowners went to City Hall, according to him. “They personally met with Datuk Yeo Boon Hai in his office, to find out what he planned to do about the wall. “The group was assured that City Hall would have the cost of restoring the structure budgeted in the list of works which it intended to carry out in 2018,” he said. When more of the slope destabilised in September 2018, damaging a drain and fence in the vicinity, another letter about the wall was sent to City Hall. “A month later, this matter was brought to the attention of YB Phoong Jin Zhe who came to have a look at the collapsed wall. “He promised the residents, who accompanied him during this visit, that he would take up their concerns with City Hall.” Hsu said more calls were made to the authority over the intervening months, in the hopes that the work on the wall might be expedited. “In May 2019, another group of City Hall officers came to inspect the site of the collapse.
2021: The pile of stones outside this Luyang home is uncovered as the canvas cover has torn away.
“The affected rate-payers were again promised that the agency would accord priority to restoring the wall.” Hsu said the present Mayor, Noorliza Alip, was asked about the lengthy delay in April this year. “She had come to buy some orchids from a homeowner in Taman Dixon. She too promised to keep this problem in view.” Despite all these efforts, as of July 7, the construction work has yet to get off the ground. Hsu was at a loss to understand why this was so. “If it is a matter of funds, why didn’t City Hall budget for the repairs earlier. After all, the collapse of the wall was first highlighted to the agency five years ago. “I feel it is unfair of City Hall to keep collecting assessment from the residents for services which are, at best, unreliable.”
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