SIBU, Oct 23: Residents at six housing estates will soon be able to have a place for recreational activity as the open space in their area will be converted into community leisure parks.
Sibu Municipal Council standing committee chairman for Building Control and Town Beautification, Councillor Joseph Chieng told reporters during a site visit to the proposed park at Jalan Perpati 2B today that the purpose of creating these parks was to promote a healthy lifestyle among the people.
“We found out that most housing areas do not have leisure parks, especially for senior citizens and children for leisure activities. By converting open space into leisure park, it will be safer for senior citizens to do walking or jogging, more than they do along the roadside,” he said.
The council, he said will build running track for each of these parks while for the children, it will provide the parks with a power up bike, two double space walkers, two-seaters see-saw, four independent slides and a two-seaters swing.
Car parking lots will also be built for these parks.
The six parks are located at Ulu Sungai Merah 50A1, Jalan Perpati 2B, Lorong Sentosa, Lorong Wong King Huo 18C, Lorong Tunku Ahmad Zaidi Adruce 50 and Jalan  Bandung.
“We will continue to identify open spaces and convert them to leisure parks. Residents can also propose to the council through their area neighbourhood committee,” he said.
These six parks will be ready for use by the end of this year.
“We seek the cooperation from the residents to later help take good care of the parks so that every one of them can enjoy the facility,” he urged.
Chieng said the council will also upgrade the existing five community gardens. They include Rejang Park Traffic Garden, Kutien Memorial Garden, Hui Ning Garden, Jalan Lim Han Swee community garden and Jalan Mantis Selatan.
“These gardens are lacking in maintenance, so we will upgrade them with a running track, playground set and gazebo,” he said.
Vice-chairman, Councillor Sammy Ngelambai said by converting open space to community leisure park, it will also help to prevent residents in the respective area from littering.
“Littering is quite common in open space. So if there is a proper playground, the people will avoid dumping rubbish now,” Â he said.
Also present were committee members Councillor Raymond Tiong and Councillor Joseph Lim. — DayakDaily.
