DOZENS OF Petaling Jaya residents are urging the Selangor government to scrap its street parking privatisation plan.

The new Selangor Intelligent Parking (SIP) system will take effect on Aug 1 in four local councils - Petaling Jaya, Subang Jaya, Shah Alam and Selayang.

Under the new plan, a concessionnaire appointed by state investment arm Menteri Besar Incorporated (MBI) will handle fee collection.

A town hall meeting, organised by PJ Sejahtera, was held on Sunday (July 27) involving elected representatives and stakeholders in Petaling Jaya.

PJ Sejahtera is a coalition of resident associations, civil society groups and other stakeholders.

Petaling Jaya MP Lee Chean Chung, who was part of a four-person panel, questioned the sudden move to privatise street parking.

“The current parking system is working well and there are no complaints among the public,” he said.

“If there are issues, then local councils should be given space to attend to them and fix them."

Former Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah called on the state government to be more transparent on the issue.

“Who decided on the implementation of SIP? So far, the information has been coming out in drips, which does not help with transparency,” she said.

Former Selangor exco member Ronnie Liu raised doubts over the legality of SIP, saying the right to charge parking was given to local councils under the Road Transport Act 1987.

Activist and journalist R. Nadeswaran said revenue from parking should go toward local authorities to fund their services for residents.

Also present was Bukit Gasing assemblyman Rajiv Rishyakaran.

Earlier on Sunday, mayor Mohamad Zahri Samingon said Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) had conditionally accepted the state government’s decision to privatise street parking in the city.

He, however, stressed that any deal must guarantee that MBPJ receives the same amount of revenue from parking fees as before.

Sunday’s town hall meeting was the latest blow to the SIP implementation, after a petition by four Selangor MPs on Friday, calling on the state government to form a committee to review the move.

The other representatives are Selayang MP William Leong, Shah Alam MP Azli Yusof and Subang MP Wong Chen.

Taman Medan assemblyman Dr Afif Bahardin, at Sunday's town hall, questioned if the MPs, who were from the Pakatan Harapan coalition, had discussed the proposal at party level before bringing it to the state executive council meeting.

“Don’t you have a WhatsApp group to discuss issues? It seems that there is a disconnect between decisions made at state level and backbenchers,” he said.