Klang mayor Abd Hamid Hussain said this was decided at a one-stop centre committee meeting on Thursday after taking into consideration technical issues and objections from residents.

“The applicants may file an appeal to the Selangor town and country planning department within 30 days.

“If they are not satisfied with the decision of the appeals board, they may bring the matter to court,” Utusan Malaysia reported him as saying today.

On June 6, it was reported that residents at Kampung Raja Uda were considering submitting a memorandum to the sultan of Selangor to protest against the proposal.

Village committee chairman Azhar Ibrahim said most of the 5,000 residents in the village opposed the proposed construction of the columbarium on a 1ha plot of private land.

He said they were worried the area may become polluted by ashes generated from cremation, particularly among homes situated less than 10m from the proposed site.

On June 19, Port Klang assemblyman Azmizam Zaman Huri expressed his confidence that MBDK would reject the proposal, as the developer had failed to present or justify the suitability of the project in a Malay-majority area.

Azmizam said that under the current laws, only 28 types of limited commercial activities were allowed in the area, none of which included the construction of a memorial or columbarium.

He said the proposal was clearly unsuitable as the land zoning under the MBDK local plan up to 2035 specified that the proposed project site was meant to be “a limited commercial area”.

Masjid Kampung Raja Uda imam Bazaireen Baharuddin had also expressed his concern over the proposal, which he said would see many religious ceremonies held there.