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Friday January 7, 2011
30 danger trees to come down
By ROSHIDI ABU SAMAH
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IPOH: The City Council will cut down about 30 trees that are decades-old to prevent them from becoming a hazard to public safety. “We can’t afford to wait for these trees to fall on people before we decide to remove them,” Mayor Datuk Roshidi Hashim said.
He added that at least 30 trees were found to be dangerous and must be removed following a study conducted by the council and funded by the National Landscape Department on 300 trees along Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, Jalan Datuk Onn Jaafar, D. R. Seenivasagam Park, Ipoh Garden and Jalan Panglima Bukit Gantang Wahab.
“The council will plant new trees,” he said. Roshidi denied that the council had been cutting down trees “indiscriminately” along Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah (Tiger Lane) as reported in community newspaper Ipoh Echo.
The Dec 27 report said about four “magnificent trees” which were at least 50 years old had been chopped down, describing this as “unnecessary killing” as they had been iconic and provided shade and aesthetic value to “one of the most picturesque parts of Ipoh”.
Local residents wrote in to accuse Roshidi of breaking his promise to protect trees around the city. However, Roshidi explained that the trees had been infected by parasites, causing them to rot.
On another matter, Roshidi clarified that he never said that the project to develop the site of the former Yau Tet Shin bazaar into a hawker centre selling the city’s best food would be implemented this year as reported by The Star on Tuesday.
