MIRI: Miri City Council (MCC) is giving housing developers a month from Malaysia Day to take down their signboards in the city.
MCC has decided to give a one-month grace period for some 40 developers to take down their large signboards advertising their properties in the city.
“These signboards not approved by the council were put up by developers; some of them block the views of motorists near road junctions,” said Mayor
Lawrence Lai at a press conference held in his chamber yesterday.
Lai stressed the need to consider road users’ safety besides removing eyesores from the city’s roads.
“We act to serve everyone regardless of their background, and the environment is for everybody. We have to consider the safety of road users whose views are sometimes blocked by signboards placed at road junctions,” he said.
The many signboards put up haphazardly are a mess and eyeness in the city.
“To be fair to all, we will take down all the developers’ signboards if they did not do so,” he added.
MCC has taken note of the large signboards put up to promote properties in the city, and is targetting housing developers in its latest campaign to implement new signboard advertisement rates in Sarawak.
Due to a shortage of enforcers, MCC is implementing new rates under the Local Authorities (Advertisements) By Laws 2006 under Section 93 in stages, started two years ago. Phase 3 of the campaign involving the furniture industry led to industry players complaining about high advertising fees.
MCC advises their representatives to appeal to the state government (through the Ministry of Environment and Public Health) to reduce the fees to a more reasonable rate.