MBPP mayor Yew Tung Seang said there had been some confusion on the part of NGOs on the location of the trees to be felled.
“The NGO members were reported to have hugged some trees yesterday, but they were under the assumption that the trees to be felled were along the whole stretch of Jalan Loh Poh Heng.
“That is not true. The 21 trees already felled are further away, located within the proposed development, which is near the market along Lebuh Sungai Kelian.
“They had hugged the wrong trees,” he said here today, adding that the remaining trees along the road would not be chopped down.
Yew said he and his team visited the location in Tanjung Bungah this morning.
They subsequently met six representatives of the NGOs, namely, Andrew Ng, Yan Lee, Khoo Salma Nasution, Agnes James, Meenakshi Raman and Dr Kam Suan Pheng.
The mayor said the NGOs were not wrong in what they did and there was no need to apologise.
“I called them up to see me. Six of them came to see me in my office. We explained matters to them. We also told them that some of their concerns are already on our agenda.
“What we need is better communication and understanding. There is a need to tell them and to also inform the public because I noticed there is a petition going around (to save trees).
“We in the council also love the trees there,” he said.
Yew stressed that the council will not simply allow any trees to be felled.
If the situation was unavoidable, then the council will figure out the best way to deal with it, he said.
In the case of the development in Tanjung Bungah, Yew said the developer had applied for 24 trees to be felled, but the council only approved 21.
“We asked them to retain two healthy trees and to transplant the third one,” he said, adding that 20 of the 21 trees had already been felled.
Several NGOs had yesterday protested against the felling of 21 mature trees in Tanjung Bungah. They said it would lead to more traffic and destruction of greenery.
It was reported that the council had planned to cut down the trees as they were reported to be “mostly damaged”, and also to make way for a road-widening project along Jalan Loh Poh Heng.
Penang NGO members hug trees, protest plans to cut them down