PHUKET: Officials moved behind closed doors and excluded the media from yesterday's important meeting on the future of Phuket's beaches.
Vice Governor Chokdee Amornwat chaired the gathering which is believed to have included Phuket mayors, police and the Land Titles office.
Phuketwan believes legal complications have been discovered which call for quite substantial changes in law before the ''10 percent zone'' concept can be introduced at Phuket's west coast tourist beaches.
Officials who attended the closed-door meeting were reluctant to reveal what took place yesterday.
Sixteen months of indecision and compromise have cost Phuket dearly. Western tourists - the ones who love beaches and once came to stay on the island for weeks and weeks - are cancelling.
The clearance of massive numbers of sunbeds and umbrellas and illegal foreshore restaurants and beach clubs should have been a big plus for the back to nature ''New Phuket'' in June last year.
Instead, the illegal vendors have been listened to while the tourists - the people who should count most because their money sustains Phuket - have been ignored, with the exception of the extensive research carried out by Prince of Songkhla University.
As Phuketwan and the university researchers have pointed out, Phuket's beaches should be managed by an independent body - not by the local councils that allowed the illegal commerce to grow in the first place.
The Mayor of Patong has said that there are no poor vendors on her beach, yet the ''10 percent zone'' is a compromise designed for the sole reason of giving a future to ''poor'' vendors.
Tourists are barred from bringing their own chairs, umbrellas and other equipment, unless they wish to be confined to the ''10 percent zones.''
Most people, with the exception of Phuket's administrators, can see that this silly concept is not enforceable.
There isn't a policeman or a local official who want to pull a beach chair from under an elderly tourist.
Yet that's what is going to have to happen if this foolish idea proceeds to endorsement by Governor Jamleran Tipayapongtada.
The concept of regimentation on the beaches of Phuket is a peculiar demand that ignores what takes place at the world's best beaches, where sunlovers are allowed to plant umbrellas and chairs wherever they wish.
The fact that Phuket is still enmeshed in ideas that cannot possibly work 16 months after the military cleared all commerce from the west coast beaches should tell officials that they are on the wrong track.
The spirit of the clearance was to ban all commerce from the public beaches. If there are still ''poor'' vendors, help them find new jobs, off the beaches.
Let the tourists bring umbrellas and chairs and sit where they wish.
Otherwise, when police or council officers are forced to take chairs from under the bums of elderly tourists on Phuket's beaches, this foolish plan will be splashed on the front pages of newspapers around the world.
Vice Governor Chokdee Amornwat chaired the gathering which is believed to have included Phuket mayors, police and the Land Titles office.
Phuketwan believes legal complications have been discovered which call for quite substantial changes in law before the ''10 percent zone'' concept can be introduced at Phuket's west coast tourist beaches.
Officials who attended the closed-door meeting were reluctant to reveal what took place yesterday.
Sixteen months of indecision and compromise have cost Phuket dearly. Western tourists - the ones who love beaches and once came to stay on the island for weeks and weeks - are cancelling.
The clearance of massive numbers of sunbeds and umbrellas and illegal foreshore restaurants and beach clubs should have been a big plus for the back to nature ''New Phuket'' in June last year.
Instead, the illegal vendors have been listened to while the tourists - the people who should count most because their money sustains Phuket - have been ignored, with the exception of the extensive research carried out by Prince of Songkhla University.
As Phuketwan and the university researchers have pointed out, Phuket's beaches should be managed by an independent body - not by the local councils that allowed the illegal commerce to grow in the first place.
The Mayor of Patong has said that there are no poor vendors on her beach, yet the ''10 percent zone'' is a compromise designed for the sole reason of giving a future to ''poor'' vendors.
Tourists are barred from bringing their own chairs, umbrellas and other equipment, unless they wish to be confined to the ''10 percent zones.''
Most people, with the exception of Phuket's administrators, can see that this silly concept is not enforceable.
There isn't a policeman or a local official who want to pull a beach chair from under an elderly tourist.
Yet that's what is going to have to happen if this foolish idea proceeds to endorsement by Governor Jamleran Tipayapongtada.
The concept of regimentation on the beaches of Phuket is a peculiar demand that ignores what takes place at the world's best beaches, where sunlovers are allowed to plant umbrellas and chairs wherever they wish.
The fact that Phuket is still enmeshed in ideas that cannot possibly work 16 months after the military cleared all commerce from the west coast beaches should tell officials that they are on the wrong track.
The spirit of the clearance was to ban all commerce from the public beaches. If there are still ''poor'' vendors, help them find new jobs, off the beaches.
Let the tourists bring umbrellas and chairs and sit where they wish.
Otherwise, when police or council officers are forced to take chairs from under the bums of elderly tourists on Phuket's beaches, this foolish plan will be splashed on the front pages of newspapers around the world.
i highly doubt it will be front page news anywhere other than phuket.. unless they shoot a tourist..
Posted by another steve on October 31, 2015 12:17