WHILE there has been no announcement so far on the lifting of the billboard freeze in Petaling Jaya, billboard operators continue to build new structures and change the advertisements displayed on the billboards.
In June, StarMetro highlighted a complaint made by some residents regarding a billboard near the Damansara Utama police station.
MBPJ councillor and billboard guidelines committee chairman Derek Fernandez had said then that the site was originally approved for a smaller board and that the operators were not supposed to build another structure without the council’s permission.
He also said the council had ordered the company to stop work and had sent them a notice to remove the structure.
Coming down: Yew said the company had agreed to comply with the guidelines set by the MBPJ However, the structure was never removed and the frame of the massive billboard was seen being put up last week.
According to Kurnia Outdoor Sdn Bhd director of development Alex Yew, the previous structure was rusting and to fix it without bringing it down would entail grinding the structure.
“That would send steel droppings to the ground so it would be safer to bring it down and put up a new one.
“Since we were refurbishing it, we applied to change the orientation of the billboard but it was rejected. We complied when they told us to stop work on the new structure,” Yew said.
He said since the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) was revamping the rate structure for the billboards, Kurnia had put on hold the refurbishing exercise.
“We have now accepted the agreement terms and are putting up the new structure. Since we are not allowed to change the orientation, we will build it according to the original size,” Yew said.
Fernandez said the council did not find the billboard structure a problem if the operator had complied to the regulations set by the council.
“They wanted to change the structure to a vertical one which was much bigger than the original one and we turned it down,” said Fernandez.
However, the council now allowed them to put up a structure according to the original size, to which the operators agreed.
When contacted, MBPJ councillor Mak Khuin Weng said the operator had torn down and rebuilt the billboard without informing the council.
“That was how things were done in the past as there were no guidelines for such work.
“Kurnia brought photos and schematics of their original billboard as proof but what I am unhappy about is the fact that the council does not seem to have any photos or structure plans to prove the same.
“All we have are records of the billboard licence,” Mak said.
Mak, who met Kurnia Outdoor representatives with councillor Tang Fuie Koh over the issue, said he was also unhappy that MBPJ did not have a policy where a billboard operator had to inform the council if they decide to rebuild a billboard.
“It is a big oversight because landowners who build houses from scratch are required to inform the council, so why shouldn’t the same policy be practised for billboards?
“This is important because billboards are much bigger structures and safety precautions have to be taken,” he said.
Mak said he had asked the town planning department to prepare a chronological report of the entire issue to be tabled at the next Mampan meeting.
According to Fernandez, the council issued 335 offer letters based on the new guidelines to new and existing billboard operators and only 198 have been signed and returned to the council.
“We will issue them a reminder and, if they fail to comply, we will deem that they are not interested and will give their site to others,” Fernandez said.
He added that those who had signed the agreement were allowed to change the advertisements displayed on the board.
An industry source, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the terms in the agreement drafted by MBPJ were not favourable to the operators.
He alleged that some of those who signed the agreement previously had illegal billboards that were “legalised” once they agreed to the terms set by the council.
“Local councils are not in business and they should not be getting revenue by renting out the temporary occupancy licences obtained for the sites.
“I think they have lost focus on their responsibilities,” he said.
Another source said there were still a lot of uncertainties in the new agreement and it might take some time for operators to understand the actual implementation.
“In general, we accept the agreement but we hope that the MBPJ would work together with us.
“Some people are not able to submit their contract figures because some of the structures on the sites have been removed,” he said.
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