Road short-cut causing grief to residents

I READ with interest two reports in The Star’s Metro edition on March 15 and 16 on the issue of gated and guarded (G&G) security schemes.

We read news of people being mugged almost every day and that certain areas in the country suffer a high crime rate. The G&G scheme was introduced to allow residents to take charge of their own safety. The core objective of having a legal G&G scheme or just installing a boom gate at the housing area is obviously safety for the residents. Another reason is to prevent outsiders from using certain roads in that residential area as a short-cut to get to another area.

Yes, it might be inconvenient to use another route to get to a school or park. It might take an additional five minutes but what is this compared to the public’s safety and health? Whatever security measure a residential area takes through its residents’ association (RA) is done with the consensus of the majority and needs to be respected.

The local councils also need to play their part in providing guidance and respecting the decision taken by an RA, especially in areas where a residential road becomes a main road as it is being used as a short-cut.

Firstly, the road was not designed to take that amount of traffic, and secondly the outsiders should not have a say on how an RA chooses to keep its neighbourhood safe. In most cases, the local council is either too lazy or indifferent to the problems faced by the residents. This is the case where I live. We have been trying to put a barrier at the entrance of our housing area for the past 20 years. Each time we were given promises that a solution would be imminent but nothing has been done so far.

All of us have been robbed and I was attacked twice by bikers who use this short-cut. More than 1,000 vehicles, including commercial vehicles, use this short-cut daily.

Our safety and health are being severely compromised but the local council has chosen to remain indifferent to our plight. Our letters and phone calls asking for a dialogue with the council have remained unanswered.

I do not know how long we can go on living like this. CECILIA NAYAGAM Seremban