Street vendors banned from trading in front of Pattaya shopping malls got an unlikely ally in their battle with city hall: Royal Garden Plaza.
Mall General Manager Lalita Wimolphan and customer service executive Panisa Mekmontien met July 23 with Pattaya City Manager Thanatpong Sriwised and legal chief Sretapol Boonsawat in an urgent bid to delay the ban on traders on public sidewalks.
Mall officials proposed a week’s delay in enforcing the new city hall dictate, offering to organize an area near the entrance to the underground parking garage for ice cream vendors to set up shop.
Sretapol – who said upon taking office his primary concern as Legal Department chief was to crack down on public-land encroachment – refused to budge, however, saying if he allowed Royal Garden to have street vendors, it would set a double standard.
Effective immediately, street vendors and hawkers must vacate areas near malls and wait for city hall to establish a new day-and-night market for them.
