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KOTA KINABALU : Parti Warisan Putatan Division urged Putatan District Council (MDPTTN) to postpone the implementation of paid parking system scheduled to begin on February 1 in that district.
The division’s Wanita Chief, Juriah Uda said the district councillors should firstly engage with relevant stakeholders especially businesses operators who now question the rationale behind the implementation.
“The official announcement to introduce the parking system was only made last December and this give everyone relatively a limited time to prepare and even more confusingly, there had been no prior engagement or even detailed explanation by MDPTN to stakeholders on the need and relevance of it.
MDPTN instead is more interested to promote the parking payment app so this naturally raised questions among stakeholders and local community why this had to be rushed upon?
This is so since being the smallest district in Sabah with an area of only 30 square km, Putatan has a limited numbers of commercial centers that provide the much needed employment to the locals especially in the mid to low end services sector particularly in the food, beverage and accomodation subsectors.
I understand the growing distrusts by businesses owners in Putatan towards MDPTN Councillors who quietly introduce the parking system because in the event MDPTN want to increase the fee a year or two after its implementation, they can do so quietly too.
And who knows they will quietly extend the parking system to residential areas in Putatan too? The Councillors cannot blame or be angry with Putatan folks if speculations on the parking system thrive because they (the Councillors) should have been discussed the matter thoroughly with the stakeholders in the first place hence the reason why I proposed its deferment,” she stated in a statement today.
Juriah also said MDPTN must also conduct its study on the impact of the parking system towards the businesses owners in terms of additional operating costs and its effect towards both employees and customers.
“This measure need to be refined as it not only increases the cost of living for Putatan folks but also has the potential to harm business owners and with the current economic situation, such an additional burden could affect the well-being of the community and the competitiveness of local businesses.
I urge the GRS elected representatives and State Government to be more sensitive to the situation on the ground and take into account the views of the community before implementing a policy with such a large impact.
Better communication and consultation with residents are the right steps to ensure that this implementation truly benefits all parties,” she concluded.
