PHUKET: Signs to alert swimmers to a long list of rules at Phuket's Patong beach are still being prepared, the district chief Poonsak Narksena said yesterday.
''The cost is quite high and we will need plenty of signs to let everybody know,'' he told Phuketwan
The last thing Phuket's premier beach needs is more signage, a Phuketwan reporter concluded in a survey of the long beach at the weekend.
With jet-skis now ruling over huge stretches of the foreshore and scores of banned beach chairs and umbrellas still being used, the freedoms that people usually associate with a trip to the beach are on display amid the chaos at Patong.
Once the Phuket governor's ''10 percent zone'' plan is put into effect, the reporter predicted, the chaos could convert into conflict.
With vast stretches of the beach in which there is nothing but sand and swimmers still confused about the jet-ski only zones in the water, confiscating illegal beach chairs and umbrellas from swimmers will become a difficult undertaking.
Under the Phuket governor's ''10 percent zone'' all umbrellas are to be confined to 10 percent of the beach.
On the basis of Phuketwan's weekend survey, discounting the huge jet-ski run stretches of open sand that are effectively a no-man's (or woman's) land, umbrellas and chairs occupy about 40 percent of the beach.
How those people now spread out in comfort across Patong will react when they are ordered to sit alongside each other is something officials on Phuket should think about before it's too late.
''The cost is quite high and we will need plenty of signs to let everybody know,'' he told Phuketwan
The last thing Phuket's premier beach needs is more signage, a Phuketwan reporter concluded in a survey of the long beach at the weekend.
With jet-skis now ruling over huge stretches of the foreshore and scores of banned beach chairs and umbrellas still being used, the freedoms that people usually associate with a trip to the beach are on display amid the chaos at Patong.
Once the Phuket governor's ''10 percent zone'' plan is put into effect, the reporter predicted, the chaos could convert into conflict.
With vast stretches of the beach in which there is nothing but sand and swimmers still confused about the jet-ski only zones in the water, confiscating illegal beach chairs and umbrellas from swimmers will become a difficult undertaking.
Under the Phuket governor's ''10 percent zone'' all umbrellas are to be confined to 10 percent of the beach.
On the basis of Phuketwan's weekend survey, discounting the huge jet-ski run stretches of open sand that are effectively a no-man's (or woman's) land, umbrellas and chairs occupy about 40 percent of the beach.
How those people now spread out in comfort across Patong will react when they are ordered to sit alongside each other is something officials on Phuket should think about before it's too late.
Everyone should also be informed that a valid licence is required to drive a jet ski.
This can be added to the new signs which will be displayed on the beaches and in the information leaflet which hotels and resorts are expected to give to their guests
Posted by Paul on March 17, 2015 09:06