KUALA Lumpur City Hall’s (DBKL) legal tangle with one of its parking contractors has been blamed for the worsening illegal parking in the city centre.
DBKL has stopped clamping illegally-parked vehicles, which by its own admission is a more effective means of curbing the problem.
The New Sunday Times has learnt that this is due to a suit filed by Vista Summerose against DBKL.
The suit was filed against DBKL late last year for breach of contract when the authorities suspended its services related to parking enforcement that, among others, involved clamping.
But the authorities are unsure whether they can carry out clamping themselves without facing legal repercussions.
Some sources have confirmed this, saying that the firm is claiming RM80 million as a penalty for the breach, damages and impact on its reputation plus interest.
This has become an added reason why the authorities are treading carefully, although the problem of illegally-parked vehicles in the city centre seemed to have spiralled out of control.
DBKL Corporate Planning Department director Norhaslinda Nordin said clamping was a more efficient means to curb illegal parking than its on-the-spot towing system and issuance of summonses.
She said under the previous method, officers stationed or patrolling hotspot areas could use the clamping apparatus on three to five vehicles at a time.
Offenders were then slapped with a on-the-spot fine of RM150 to remove the clamp.
“We have two tow trucks patrolling hotspots like Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Brickfields and Bukit Bintang. However, once they tow a car, it will take at least one or two hours for them to check the vehicle into our depots in Jinjang or Salak Selatan.
“So the effectiveness is somewhat less than clamping,” she said when asked to comment on the worsening illegal parking in the city.
Haslinda said aggressive towing began when the authorities reinstated the suspension of clamping on Nov 1.
“The mayor (Datuk Nor Hisham Ahmad Dahlan) decided on a mechanism and schedule for towing in hotspots.
“Our statistics showed that the number of illegally-parked cars has gone down in these areas,” she said, adding that the hotspots included Masjid India, KLCC and Bangsar.
She said 800 vehicles were towed from February to last month.
However, while DBKL mulls over what it should do next, the problem has reached a boiling point.
In neighbourhoods where the hotspots are located, such as Bangsar and Brickfields, people double and triple park, causing traffic jams and even accidents.
The issue is compounded by a significant dearth of DBKL enforcement officers in the areas and commercial establishments hogging reserved bays around the clock, while others, especially workshops, have up to six reserved bays, marked with red paint.
In the heart of the city, cars can be seen parked in bicycle lanes and bus stops, posing a hazard to road users.
City Traffic Enforcement and Investigation Department Assistant Commissioner Zulkefly Yahya said motorists continued to park haphazardly, with or without clamping by DBKL.
He, however, said police were taking efforts to control the situation by issuing summonses to motorists and deploying teams to hotspots.
Zulkefly said among the hotspots were areas with high traffic volume, such as Bukit Bintang, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Pavilion and KL Sentral.
He said motorists were becoming savvy, making sure they had someone behind the wheel when they parked haphazardly.
“Now, if they double-park, there is someone behind the wheel, so that they won’t get a summons or have their car towed,” he said.
He said police would normally only tow cars when they were left unattended for more than 30 minutes and they were obstructing traffic.
Zulkefly said the peak hour for such activity was usually noon when people left offices for lunch.
Selamatkan Kuala Lumpur deputy chairman M. Ali said
the issue boiled down to two issues — the lack of planning and a broken-down enforcement system.
“First, there is no sustainable plan or planning that the city follows, and there is no will to have a proper system of planning.
“Everything always goes back to political consideration.
“So the problem will continue,” he said while drawing on the authorities’ lack of seamless public transport and flip-flopping in its plans to do away with parking bays for new developments in the city.
He said the issue would go on as there was no proper, cohesive enforcement system by DBKL or other agencies.
“You have to put your foot down and no longer be lenient.
“If education has not worked, you have to be ruthless.”
Local government expert Derek Fernandez said local authorities should not privatise its enforcement powers, such as clamping.