Patong upgrade to town status delayed

PATONG: Patong Mayor Surasak Maneesri has blamed the previous local administration for a lack of progress in getting the town’s status upgraded from tessabaan tambon (village) to tessaban muang (town). In February last year, local government officials estimated that the application process would take eight months to a year to complete. But, said Mayor Surasak, “The Ministry of Interior has told us that our town plans were not correct. “We can’t say when we will be promoted to muang status because some documents that were supposed to have been submitted by the previous team were missed. We are rushing to get them together now.” The plan to upgrade Patong to town status was hatched by former Mayor Pian Keesin last year as a way for Phuket’s most popular beach community to cope with its rapid growth. The upgrade would allow the Municipality to double the number of municipal councilors (it currently has 11), to get expanded powers to administer the town, and to hire more tax collectors.