Taman Kejiranan Jalan Cheeseman in Jelutong has become the first neighbourhood park in Penang to be finished under the Taman Rekreasi Madani programme, after a RM412,580 upgrade that kept a merry-go-round older than most of the people who ride it.
Work on the 3,200 square metre site ran from 16 April to 15 October this year, Penang Property Talk reported. The finished park now carries new children’s playground equipment, six outdoor exercise stations, wider walkways, 10 benches, two solar-powered lights, a mobile CCTV unit and six bollards that keep vehicles off the grass.
Signage, floodlights and fresh grass planting were added in the same contract, according to Buletin Mutiara, the state government’s news portal.
State local government and town and country planning committee chairman Jason H’ng Mooi Lye said RM3 million has been set aside for six Taman Madani projects across Penang, three under the Penang Island City Council (MBPP) and three under the Seberang Perai City Council (MBSP).
H’ng said the Jelutong park is the first Taman Madani completed in Penang, and thanked MBPP and residents who worked with the council to see it through. The programme, he said, is aimed at giving residents public spaces that are safer, more comfortable and open to everyone.
Universal design was built into the plan: ramps and seating for persons with disabilities (OKU), benches set for older residents, and walkways wide enough for wheelchairs and prams. That approach lets one park serve children, seniors and users with limited mobility without separate corners for each.
The merry-go-round is the piece residents pressed hardest to keep. Estimated at more than 50 years old, it dates back to the park’s establishment in 1968, and the council agreed to retain it after residents asked, improving its safety and its appearance instead of pulling it out.
Air Itam assemblyman Joseph Ng Soon Siang said that request carried the most weight among the residents’ wishes. He said the council welcomed it and kept the traditional ride, with work done on its safety and how it looks.
Ng gave the cost and the timeline at the launch, and named the facilities handed over: the walkways, the six exercise units, the playground set that includes the merry-go-round, the 10 benches, the two solar lights, the mobile CCTV and the six bollards.
MBPP councillors Ng Soo Siang and Rohaizat Hamid attended the launch, along with members of the Jalan Masjid Negeri village community management council (MPKK).
For residents around Jalan Cheeseman, the practical change is a park that is easier to walk into and harder for cars to drive through, with lighting after dark and a playground rebuilt around equipment that has stood there for more than half a century. It is the first of six parks in the programme to reach completion.
