Phuketwan will update LIVE from Phuket Provincial Hall as the protest continues.

PHUKET: More than a thousand people are expected to gather on Phuket today as anger mounts at the Bangkok Government and lack of funding for Phuket Infrastructure.

By 9.50am there were at least 300 protesters assembled at Saphan Hin and destined for Phuket Provincial Hall in Phuket City, where a petition was to be presented to Phuket's Governor.

Some of the placards being held up at today's protest in the administrative heart of Phuket called for the suspension of paying taxes until Phuket gains a fair share of distributed revenue.

The week has seen small protests and irate comments swell to major agitation and the threat of even larger protests to come on Phuket, Thailand's largest and best-known holiday island.

For more than a decade Phuket's population have complained that Phuket does not get the return it deserves for the huge amounts tourism provides.

This has been true under all governments but the heat is now on the present Pheu Thai ruled government especially following injudicious comments by a Deputy Prime Minister last weekend.

Dr Plodprasop Suraswadi said that Phuket did not win an exhibition and conference centre because people on Phuket failed to vote for Thai Rak Thai: ''It's not our fault, it's their fault that they didn't vote for us.''

Today's protest began at Saphan Hin public park in Phuket City then moved towards Phuket provincial Hall. About 100 motorcyclists were at the forefront of a crowd that had grown to 500 people.

Organised by Rak Phuket (Love Phuket) today's protest is separate to the planned Sunday protest by the Phuket Social network Group, whose trademark is the White Mask, in the style of Guy Fawkes and anarchists.


10.40am The marchers, swelling in numbers as they walk, arrive at Phuket Provincial Hall after the march through Phuket City from Saphan Hin park. Protests are not welcome on Phuket.

Officials fear the sight of people in the streets might scare the tourists. There have been few Phuket street protests since before 2008, when the Democrat Government briefly held power in bangkok - and failed to deliver infrastructure to Phuket, just like their predecessors and their successors.

10.50am Phuket's Governor, Maitree Intrusud, is not at Phuket Provincial Hall to greet the marchers. Anger grows among the crowd, who wanted to give him a petition complaining about Phuket's treatment by the Bangkok Government.

11am Vice Governor Dr Sommai Preechasin, who met the Chinese Ambassador last month in the governor's absence, emerges to accept the petition. Loudspeakers continue to broadcast angry comments. The estimate on the crowd size is about 500 - down on expectations.

11.10am The petition has been presented but the protesters aren't done yet. Now they're marching on the Phuket tax office. Their complaint is that Phuket needs money for roads, gargage, incinerators . . . lots of projects. But no cash flows back from Bangkok.

''You don't work for us, we don't work for you,'' they are saying. What protesters are now saying they want is a governor elected by Phuket citizens, and autonomy to spend the money that Phuket earns on Phuket.

11.20am Corruption is another concern, the marchers were saying. ''Corruption among government staff on the island is very high,'' the crowd was told through an amplifier.