By Wendy John
SIBU, Jan 26: Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) will make it mandatory for the people to stop using their residential house for commercial activities such as car workshop.
The council is also extending its warning to shoplot owners in residential areas that are using their premises as a bird’s nest house, said SMC chairman Clarence Ting.
He added that the conversion of residential houses into car workshops and scrap metal storing centres have created environmental problem to the neighbours.
“We receive feedback from affected residents that as much as they want to live in a clean environment, their neighbours are not cooperating, as they are running a car workshop and other businesses that are a site for sore eyes and polluting the environment.
“There are also those who are not operating a car workshop but have an unkempt backyard, which created filthy smell,” he told reporters at his Chinese New Year Open House here today.
Ting said the council considered these activities as “unacceptable” in the community, as residential houses should not be converted for commercial activity.
“The other issue is the noise from bird’s nest house at shophouses. A lot of people are not happy that the council is turning a blind eye on this bird’s nest house, which generates (artificial) bird chirping sound constantly,” continued the SMC chairman, who took over the post in September last year.
The public wanted the council to resolve this issue regarded as an environmental problem and SMC is looking into these, he said.
“In the four months of my walkabout, I have been a peacemaker. People are voicing out their dissatisfaction about their neighbour.
“The biggest problem is the neighbour-to-neighbour quarrel over various issues, including cooking smoke crossing over to the neighbour’s house and those who let their dogs roam freely in the neighbourhood, resulting in some residents having to confine their children indoors,” Ting continued.
He added that the council has to take stern action and inculcate the public to become good neighbours and together make Sibu a cleaner and tranquil city to live in.
This especially considering that most of the issues were internal matter between the neighbours.
“What I want to say is that in order to have a better and cleaner Sibu, the council and the people must do it together,” he said. — DayakDaily
