Pattaya will postpone evicting illegal vendors from Wong Amat Beach until after the Covid-19 pandemic, but told excess fishing boats they must go.
Deputy Mayors Wuthisak Rermkijakarn and Manote Nongyai visited the shoreline at Naklua Soi 18 in front of The Cove condominium Feb. 14 to find several operators selling food or offering beach chairs, all in violation of the law.
The largest operator, served eviction papers years ago, currently is battling the city in court. The other two vendors are more-recent squatters.
Wuthisak said chairs, umbrellas and food hawkers were banished from Wong Amat in 2015 by the former military junta, but, over time, some crept back. Cognizant of the hard times caused by the coronavirus crisis, Pattaya officials decided to put off plans to remove the vendors.
Instead, the city will reorganize the sales areas and enforce sizes and boundaries of each plot. Later, when tourism recovers in Pattaya after Covid-19 fades, the city will move forward with clearing the beach again, Wuthisak said.
Fishing boats that pull up on shore to sell seafood aren’t being given the same grace, however. The law allows a maximum 30 preregistered boats to sell their wares. Far more than that currently do, the deputy mayor said.
Pattaya officials on Valentine’s Day spoke with the operators of the unregistered boats and informed them they must leave and not return.
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