JOHOR BARU: The Johor Baru City Council (MBJB) today launched an operation to dismantle oversized signboards at business premises in areas under its jurisdiction.
Johor Baru mayor A. Rahim Nin said 150 men comprising local council workers and private contractors will be divided into 10 groups and deployed to various areas in the day-long operation.
"We plan to take down 50 signboards today. These signboards were approved by MBJB but in May last year we introduced a new ruling to standardise the size of the signboards.
"We do not want the signboards to exceed 6.1m x 1.2m as oversized signboards are not only unsightly, it also blocks the view of the buildings and mars the image of the city.
"Besides that, oversized signboards also pose a danger to the public as the structures of these signboards do not comply with the safety requirement.
"There is no need for business operators to install massive signboards to attract more customers," he said.
"We have identified more than 5,000 business premises who failed to adhere to the guidelines, and we have informed the business operators that the ruling will take effect on January 1.
"We hope business operators will take the initiative to dismantle their own signboard because if they wait for us to do it, we will charge the business owner between RM4,000 and RM5,000 for the service and the signboard will be seized, under the council's (Licencing and Advertising) Act 2010.
"If they do it themselves, they could save cost as well as keep the signboard," he said.