Area beach vendors upset over being forced to remove all their chairs and umbrellas each week won a reprieve and now can stow them in designated zones.
Pattaya security head Terasak Jatupong, municipal police chief Pol. Maj. Jirawat Sukontasap and Pattaya’s top attorney Sretapol Boonsawat met June 30 with 300 Pattaya and Jomtien beach vendors to brief them on current regulations and answer questions.
The vendors overwhelmingly complained about being forced to haul away heavy beach chairs and unwieldy umbrellas every Tuesday night and bring them back Friday morning. Many said they don’t have storage space at home for their equipment and rental spaces were too crowded.
Terasak tossed the crowd a bone by saying the city no longer would require total removal. Instead, zones will be set up each week where vendors can store their gear. The location of each zone would change weekly, however, as city workers make their way down each beach, cleaning and overturning the sand.
Pattaya recently ordered vendors to vacate the beach both Wednesday and Thursday to allow for the beach facelift. Volunteers and heavy equipment are picking up rubbish, flipping over and raking sand and filling in holes to make the beaches safe and beautiful again.
The work is scheduled through the end of July in Pattaya and the middle of August in Jomtien. Afterward, Terasak said, vendors will be allowed to return to the sand on Thursdays.
