Residents in Catch-22 seek MP's help

The Star 21/2/2004

I am a resident at the newly constructed Cyberia Smarthomes. However, the living conditions here have been far from satisfactory, a far cry from the lifestyle in the intelligent city that the glossy brochures proclaimed. 

For a start, the developer has suddenly revoked our secondary parking permits and limit every condominium unit to just one parking bay per unit. 

The permit is issued to residents with more than one vehicle. 

Previously, Cyberia residents were required to pay tri-monthly parking fee of RM45 for every secondary vehicle parking permit, which was a rather reasonable figure. 

However, problems started at the beginning of this year when the management decided to stop renewing our secondary vehicle permits without giving any satisfactory explanation. 

Complaints to the customer service were not promptly entertained as none of their staff seem to be able to provide any logical explanation for the recent step. 

To make matters more mind-boggling, a visit to the multi-storey car park reveals that the parking complex, which was hardly two-thirds occupied before, is now so vacant and void of cars. 

Only a handful of cars with primary parking pass are occupying their respective bays. 

Residents are currently left without any other option but to park their cars illegally and dangerously along the roadside as there are no designated public parking areas nearby. 

Which leads us to another problem, the safety of road users. 

Before the recent problem with the management, there were already many cars which were parked by the roadside because there are not enough visitor or public car parks in the area. 

Now things have gotten a lot worse as the rows of cars parked by the roadside can stretch up to 300 meters, both sides. 

These cars pose a danger to other road users as they block the view of drivers going out and turning to the Cyberia junction.  

A few serious accidents, one of them fatal, and numerous other close calls have taken place. 

I, too, had a close call when I was turning out of the junction as a huge sports utility vehicle was blocking my view of a fast approaching car. But the people here have no other option but to park at the roadside. 

Security also needs to be tightened. Cases of theft have been reported by residents.  

I hope this letter will draw the attention of local authority and the respective MP to look into the woes of the residents. 

Disgruntled Resident, 

Cyberjaya.