GEORGE TOWN: The Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) approved applications for hillslope developments on 38 lots on the island in the last two years, MPPP president Patahiyah Ismail said.

She added that applications on 17 lots were rejected during the same period.

Patahiyah refused to disclose where the developments were located, as some cases involved legal issues and were pending in court.

She said that in approving the applications, the council referred to a hillslope development safety guide drawn up by Oxford-trained Prof Dr Gue See Sew, a former international chairman of the coordinating committee of Apec Engineers and president of the Institute of Engineers Malaysia.

“We are considering making the slope development approvals more transparent by putting them on a website,” Patahiyah told a press conference here yesterday.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who was present, stressed that the state government had not approved any development on contours above 76m-high, except for green areas like a park.

He said he was referring to developments above 76m when he said on April 20 that hillslope projects in the state were either approved or undertaken by the previous state administration.

“Of course we have approved development on slopes, but a hill by definition must be land higher than 76m,” he said.

At an earlier event yesterday, Patahiyah said she had barred MPPP councillor Dr Lim Mah Hui (who previously said that the state government had influenced the approval of a hillslope development in Sungai Ara) from issuing statements on hillslope developments because it could besub judice.

Source: The Star