PHUKET: A group of restaurants at Mai Khao remains among the last of the ''illegal'' buildings to still be standing in the face of Army pressure to clear public space.

What's notable is that some of the largest permanent constructions have yet to topple. Coincidentally, most of those large constructions are backed by influential people.

On Patong beach, for example, the restaurant extension at the Patong Bay Garden Resort, reinforced with sandbags so comprehensively that people strolling the beach at high tide are forced to get their feet wet, is still there.

Patong Mayor Chalermlak Kebsub said earlier this month that businessman Prab Keesin had agreed to demolish the extension, although he maintains it's legal.

Yet yesterday, the sandbags that support the extension appeared to have been buttressed and made more resistant with netting.

The Lotus restaurant at Laypang (northern Bang Tao) beach also cannot be bypassed without getting one's feet wet. It has grown over the years down to the waterline.

The Zazada beach club at Surin remained intact when we visited some days ago, yet parts of it are clearly on the wrong side of a path that divides the legal from the illegal.

This week, the focus turned to the large, well-known White Box restaurant at Kalim, where extensions clearly traverse sand and beach rocks.

The media is waiting to hear what will happen next.

While we understand that progress is slower in clearances where claims are already in court, where there are apparently binding agreements or where owners now wish to challenge the clearances in court, it's vital that accurate updates are given in each of the outstanding cases.

Progress will vary from beach to beach, with recalcitrant vendors also making a comeback at some places.

But if there are setbacks, the Army will need to explain the reason for those setbacks.

The idea of National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha giving weekly updates to the citizens of Thailand every Friday in his ''Return Happiness to the People'' telecasts is a good one.

There is no mistaking the messages that the general makes plain, week in, week out, with English subtitles also provided.

We'd like the idea to be repeated on Phuket, where Major General Somchai Ponatong is the man in charge.

He should meet the media on a weekly basis, giving updates and providing the reasons for any change in approach.

It would also be useful if Phuket's honorary consuls met him as a group so they could explain that while some of the countries they represent have reservations about coups, the reforms on Phuket are welcome and long overdue.

Phuket is, after all, the most international of Thailand's tourism destinations and the one that delivers most outside of Bangkok in revenue.

That's always been evident at Mai Khao beach, where five-star resorts mean the taxi drivers at the local stand are among the best paid, and the prices at the shorefront restaurants are also higher than at other beaches.

Rungroj Seaton runs one of the Mai Khao restaurants, having paid 700,000 baht to take it over last year, and having redecorated the place.

Now he and the other proprietors have been told by Mai Khao council that notices demanding destruction of the restaurants will be coming soon.

Khun Rungroj faces a substantial loss on his investment.

And Mai Khao's five-star tourists will be forced to pay even higher prices to eat out.