Petaling Jaya City Council communications officer Hasbullah Juyahir said the council was aware that not all commercial areas within the city have retail places selling the park-and-display coupons or functioning coin machines.
“The park-and-display coupon system is being introduced in stages and we have 16 shops selling them. For now, we will not issue summonses in areas where there are no coupon agents or parking machines,” Hasbullah said when contacted yesterday.
On why MBPJ appointed coupon agents outside the city, Hasbullah said some of the parking agents registered their business in Shah Alam, Puchong and Semenyih.
“These agents have their office registered in places like Shah Alam. However, they were appointed to engage with smaller agents in Petaling Jaya to sell the coupons,” he said in response to queries from Petaling Jaya folk on the rationale of appointing parking coupon agents in Shah Alam, Puchong and Semenyih while some busy commercial areas within the city have no agents.
The parking coupon method was implemented on Tuesday after the council’s former parking operator’s contract was terminated last month.
The council received a lot of flak for allowing only 16 agents to sell the coupons with places such as PJ New Town, Section 14 and SS2 commercial areas without an agent.
The council also said that in areas where there are coin machines, the public could still display the parking tickets.
Friends of Kelana Jaya Park deputy chairman Esham Salam said few of the 16 coupon distribution agents listed by MBPJ were located out of the city.
“People are confused why some agents are in Shah Alam. Shouldn’t all the agents be in Petaling Jaya? Is it because the parking coupon will soon be used in all councils in Selangor?” asked Esham.
Parking coupons should be standardised for customer convenience but they are not as the coupons differ from one council to another in Selangor. Selangor has 12 local councils.
He said the council needed to select more business operators in the city to become parking coupon agents.
Esham welcomed the move to reintroduce the parking coupon system and suggested that it be implemented on a long term for all council managed parking.
“We can do away with a lot of management and machine maintenance issues with the coupon system,” he said, adding that the operating cost would be cheaper with the coupon method.
Section 14 (Jalan 14/1 to 14/15) Residents Association chairman Selva Sugumaran Perumal said there were no agents selling parking coupons in his neighbourhood which was a busy commercial centre.
“The scratch-and display system was implemented after a long holiday break on Tuesday and people did not have time to buy the coupons. The council should not issue summonses until there are enough agents selling the coupons.
“My area has no coupon agents. Section 14 near the Digital Mall area, Petaling Jaya New Town and SS2 have no agents selling coupons, the last I checked. These are among the busy business areas in the city and motorists are worried they will be penalised,” said Selva.
Working parking meters are harder to find in Petaling Jaya nowadays.
“Residents claim there were not enough parking coupons in stock. PJ has over 600,000 residents, excluding those who live elsewhere and work here. There should be over one million parking coupon booklets printed and the council should have a stockpile.
“It is inconvenient for the public to go to the MBPJ headquarters to buy the coupons,” he said.
Florence Sundaram, 60, said although she was familiar with the coupon system, she found it troublesome to adapt to the various systems implemented by different councils.
“I now have several different parking coupon booklets for the various councils. I can’t see too well and I am worried I might place the wrong coupon,” she said, calling for one common coupon for all councils in the state.
Bukit Gasing assemblyman R. Rajiv said retail outlets in the city interested to become coupon agents could go to the MBPJ finance department.
He told a press conference that PJ Old Town and Section 14 near Digital Mall were among places with the highest number of faulty machines.
Six more agents were appointed, and among them are Jokey Parking outside Digital Mall (Jalan 14/20), Advance One Stop Supplies in Jalan Tengah (PJ New Town), and Lian Hin Enterprise in Jalan 1/12, PJ Old Town, he said.
Petaling Jaya councillor Terence Tan said there were suggestions to have one parking system for all 12 councils in Selangor, but it would be a challenge as each council had different agreements with the parking operators.
