Historical bungalows off Kelawai Road demolished

A historical bungalow near the old Tenby International School site, off Jalan Kelawei in George Town, has been demolished to make way for a condo project.

The NST has a story on the demolition of one bungalow.

From what I hear, two of the three historical bungalows have been demolished. It is believed that these bungalows may be Category II buildings under a categorisation of old buildings – which means they should be retained but a little modification may be permissible. Is there any truth to this? The MPPP should clarify the status of these buildings in line with CAT.

You can see photos of the three bungalows on the Penang Heritage Trust website.

A heritage activist says a worrying practice seems to be emerging: allowing the demolition of buildings of a similar character in a row, leaving behind only one house in the row as a “sample” of what was once there.

Anyway, the NST report quotes an MPPP building department spokesman as saying he was aware of the demolition work currently taking place.

However, he said MPPP had granted planning permission but had not approved the building plan.

“The demolition was allowed to go ahead after the planning permission was given,” the spokesman said.

He confirmed that the site was for a condominium project but declined to reveal details.

The MPPP needs to give full details of this project and clarify: Are the demolitions to make way for the Setia V Residences project? (S P Setia has a RM170m project to build 67 super condos priced from RM2.5m each in the Gurney area.)