GEORGE TOWN, May 11 – A DAP MP has urged the city council to implement a master plan to maintain old trees to prevent unwanted incidents.

Pulau Tikus MP Joshua Woo Sze Zeng said a more aggressive plan by the Penang Island Municipal Council (MBPP) was needed to preserve these trees through systematic pruning and maintenance.

“If it is necessary to cut down some of these dangerous trees, the MBPP should not hesitate to do so to ensure that these public areas and roads are safe for users,” he said in a statement.

He had been made aware of an incident this morning in which a large tree along Macalister Road was uprooted and fell, damaging vehicles and the concrete fence of a building.

“In fact, on April 26, a tree fell and damaged four cars at Lebuh Raya Scott in Pulau Tikus,” he said.

He said no one was injured in either incident, but something must be done to prevent it.

“My service centre team has been working closely with MBPP to monitor and prune trees, especially the large ones along the four ‘green corridors’ in Pulau Tikus, Jalan Kelawai, Jalan Burma, Jalan Macalister and Jalan Utama,” he said.

He said that there are hundreds of very old and large trees in these areas compared to other places.

He said the trees were important to the cityscape and acted as “green lungs” in the urban environment, but if MBPP needed to cut down some of these “dangerous trees”, it should do so.

“Our priority is the lives of the people of Penang,” he said.