JEDDAH — Lack of coordination between Jeddah Municipality and Encroachments Demolition Committee has led to the closure of several streets, Makkah newspaper reported on Monday. Encroachment Demolition Committee head Samir Basabreen said the municipality has closed some of the streets to allow the committee to demolish encroached properties. "There is lack of coordination between the committee and the municipality. I have filed a complaint with (Jeddah) Mayor Jeddah Hani Abu Ras. It points out to the the absence of municipality inspectors during the demolition campaigns," said Basabreen. He added the demolition operations require the involvement of the municipality. "The municipality's responsibility is to record encroachment violations and report them to the committee. The committee will then send field workers to demolish any structure on the encroached property and clear it," said Basabreen. He also said some encroachments expand onto the streets and roads of the city. "In some cases, the streets need to be closed so we can clear the property. We cannot close and open a street without the license of the municipality. We have completed demolition of structures on some encroached properties and had to close the streets to complete the project," said Basabreen. He also said the municipality inspectors should be present with the committee's field workers to immediately open the streets after the demolition operation is complete. "We also had incident of streets being opened by the municipality without notification to the committee. The entire procedure should be done in coordination as ordered by the Governor Prince Mishaal Bin Majed," said Basabreen. He added the committee had to open some of the streets to facilitate traffic again when it was not its responsibility to do so. "We have tried to communicate with the municipality and inform it of our concerns. They replied by saying their inspectors are busy on other projects. "The negligence of the municipality is not acceptable and it should be legally reprimanded," said Basabreen.
