Unlicensed theme park in Penang ordered to close

KEPALA BATAS - The Seberang Perai City Council (MBSP) has ordered the Bertam Water Theme Park Resort & Water Park in Kepala Batas, here to be closed since yesterday for operating without a licence.

MBSP in a statement said that the theme park which opened on Dec 15 had been issued a notice for the management to stop the entertainment activities of the water theme park under the Entertainment and Places of Entertainment Enactment 1998.

"From the inspection and review carried out by the MBSP Licensing Department at 1.30 pm on Dec 16, it was found that the premises had committed the offence of conducting business without a licence from MBSP and a compound was issued and a notice requiring the business to stop was also issued within seven days to the owner and it was accepted by the owner's representative.

"Six days later, another inspection was carried out and found that the premises were operating without an entertainment licence for water theme park activities, for which an offence notice to stop water theme park entertainment activities under the Entertainment and Places of Entertainment Enactment 1998 was issued for a period of three days to the owner," according to the statement.

The statement informed that an inspection at 4.30pm on Tuesday found that the owner was still carrying out entertainment activities at the water theme park and caused the closure action to be taken again at 9.40am yesterday.

Meanwhile, Bernama found that the entrance to the water theme park was closed and guarded by a security guard who informed that the place was temporarily closed to the public.

Penang Housing, Local Government and Town and Country Planning Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo when contacted informed that he would leave it to MBSP to carry out further investigation.

The RM90 million theme park which started operating in the middle of this month on an eight-hectare site is owned by The Maritime Water Front Suites Sdn Bhd.

Previously, the project was reported to have been delayed for more than three years due to several problems including Covid-19. - BERNAMA