By Jerry Francis
Why the double standard? There are many motorists parking their vehicles on a regular basis every day in no-parking areas in the middle of the city, yet no summons is being issued to them.
I don’t have to list out the places as I am sure the council’s enforcement officers are aware of them.
While those motorists, who park along Jalan Raja Ashman Shah in front of Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital, are being frequently booked.
Unlike the motorists in the city centre, they are there daily not for leisure or on business errands, but to seek treatment or accompanying relatives to the hospital. Majority of them are senior citizens and in the B40 group, who are having great difficulties finding parking spaces nearby.
All available parking spaces within the hospital and its surrounding areas are often full. They are taken up as early as 7am.
Those seeking out-patient treatment at the hospital daily would, therefore, have to park their vehicles at any space available nearby rather than having to walk two or three kilometres to the clinics.
One of them, Encik Mohamed Yassin, 75, said whenever he had an appointment with the cardiologist he would leave for the hospital early.
“Even as early as 7am, I cannot find a parking space nearby and I have no choice but to park along the main road, as it is less than 200m to the Specialists’ Clinics,” he said. “With my heart condition, I do not want to risk taking a long walk.”
An 82-year-old retiree, known only as Mohan, said he had a 10am appointment at the Surgery Clinic and was at the hospital at 8am. Unable to find a place to park, he left his car along the main road and went to the clinic.
“When I returned four hours later, there was a summons on the windscreen,” he said. “I remembered that if the summon is paid on the same day, there would be an automatic 50 per cent discount. So, I immediately drove to the city council’s complex and paid RM20.”
“Well, It was an expensive parking fee. If I were to take a taxi from my house in Bercham, it would probably cost more,” added Mohan.
Just like Mohamed and Mohan, many motorists too are parking their vehicles along Jalan Raja Ashman Shah daily in spite of the summons for illegal parking.
It may appear that they are defying the authority of the Ipoh City Council, but they are not. They choose to pay the summons rather than take a long walk to the hospital.
I feel that Ipoh City Council needs to be sympathetic to these motorists and restrain from issuing summonses for illegal parking along Jalan Raja Ashman Shah as long as the vehicles are not obstructing the flow of traffic.
Both sides of the road are wide enough for orderly parking. If it is not possible to be sympathetic to those motorists, then provide parking bays along the road.
Unless the city council considers issuing summons to the motorists along that stretch of road as more “lucrative” as its coffers can be enriched by at least RM1000 daily from the collection of fines.
