Chonburi Permanent Secretary
Chawalit Saeng-Uthai said that 252 of the 500 chair and umbrella vendors
think they own the sand on which they operate on Pattaya, Jomtien and
Dongtan beaches.
Urasin Khantaraphan
Politicians and other influential public figures are claiming
ownership of large swaths of Pattaya-area beaches, selling or renting out
49-sq.-meter patches of sand to beach chair vendors, Chonburi officials
said.
Continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding Pattaya and Jomtien
beaches’ 500 chair and umbrella vendors, Chonburi Permanent Secretary
Chawalit Saeng-Uthai said Oct. 6 that 252 of the vendors claim they own the
sand on which they operate on Pattaya, Jomtien and Dongtan beaches.
All beaches are public property and cannot be owned or rented out to private
citizens, Chawalit pointed out. Sorting out the situation, he said, is
causing delays in complying with the National Council for Peace and Order’s
directive to clean up and reorganize Pattaya-area beaches.
The military junta has shown little patience for corrupt politicians and
“influential” private figures encroaching on public beaches. The NCPO sent
soldiers to clear the sand in Phuket of beach chairs, umbrellas and other
vendors, unapologetically tossing hundreds of people out of work. Vendors
petitioned the junta to relax its ban only to be told to enroll in
occupational-training courses to learn new vocations.
The threat of military action prompted officials in Hua Hin to take similar
action while local officials and the military were working on Koh Lipe and
the Phi Phi islands to restore the beachfront to its natural state.
The military has told Pattaya to sort out its beachfront issues itself, but
the threat of military intervention hangs heavy over the city. Yet, despite
the threat of having all its beach umbrellas folded up, the city has dragged
its feet, still trying to allow beach-chair vendors to profit from public
property.
Local corruption appears to be the reason for that, Chawalit said. His 10
teams of inspectors reported vendors telling them they are paying
5,000-50,000 baht a month to “owners” of their 7x7-meter lots. Half have
opted to “buy” the public property for up to 1 million baht.
All the money is going into the pockets of “government officials” who he
declined to, or was unable to, identify. Vendors who rent their lots say
government officials and city politicians approved their rental contract,
Chawalit said.
He noted, however, that many of those renting vendors were never registered
with the city, again pointing to private deals between the operators and the
government officials who approved them.
Likely for fear of losing their concessions, nobody is saying who they
bought or are renting the public beachfront from, the permanent secretary
said. He vowed, however, to continue to investigate, saying many of the
vendors inspectors spoke to are lying.
Meanwhile, inspectors will continue to measure each parcel and ask the land
office to pin boundary points to separate the chair areas from sand
allocated to the public to prevent them from encroaching further.
So, for the moment, things will remain as they have, Chawalit said: Vendors
will be allowed to operate one 7x7-meter parcel with 35 umbrellas and 40
chairs. However, he noted, many of the vendors inspected operate up to five
parcels in violation of even the current regulations.
If the matter cannot be sorted out, Chawalit warned, the government will
simply seize all their property and the land. He encouraged vendors to
cooperate before it gets to that point.
