LAWYERS representing Bukit Rahman Putra (BRP) residents are preparing to take legal action against the Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) for allowing the expansion of a service road, which will encroach on a community football field.

The residents in Sungai Buloh, Selangor have engaged the services of lawyer Joy Appukuttan to represent them in their legal bid.

Appukuttan said over the span of three weeks they have filed several letters to MPS requesting documents on the project.

“We wrote to them (MPS) requesting documentation on the decision for the road expansion and on the engagement that is to take place between the residents and MPS.

“We are still waiting for their feedback as we were told that the letters had been sent to the MPS engineering department,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Appukuttan said they are preparing to go to court if there is no response.

“We are planning to go to court. If they are planning to meet us then they should do it. If not, we have no choice but to proceed with legal action.”

It was reported the road expansion will go ahead despite objections from the residents.

MPS president Yazid Sairi said the project has to go ahead as it mitigates traffic congestion in the area.

“We are aware of the residents’ objections, but MPS must also take into account those who want the project to go ahead because of the current traffic situation,” he said after the council’s monthly board meeting in August.

He also said a briefing session is expected to take place in early October with residents who were against the project.

The residents have been strongly opposing plans by a developer to widen Jalan BRP7/2 in their neighbourhood, which runs adjacent to the field as it will eat into the green lung.

The road widening is to allow access to a new development site in their area.

The residents claimed that about 59 trees on the field have been marked to be cut down.

Yazid, however, said that 48 trees will be cut and at least 96 trees of different species will be planted there.

BRP representative Lam Kin Tong said they have done everything to prevent the road expansion but to no avail.

“On September 24, contractors came to cut the trees at the field. They had an approval letter from the MPS landscape department, but we prevented them.

“We are disappointed as there was no communication or response with MPS.

“We have no other choice but to engage a lawyer and will let him handle things from here.”

The football field encompasses basketball and sepak takraw courts, walkways and jogging tracks.

Residents of BRP, Matang Pagar, Villa Putera, Villa Puteri, Amansari, Sri Indah, Sri Putra, and Kuang share usage of the field.

A petition was also signed by 537 local residents and field users, which was submitted to the MPS president and Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari in 2019. – October 11, 2023.