Businesses encroaching Layan Beach in Phuket get final eviction notice
Phuket officials handed a final eviction notice to four businesses illegally occupying Layan Beach. Their patience finally snapped after a string of notices were ignored dating back to 2017. They now have to remove all structures from three kilometres of public land by the end of the month. Several businesses have been operating along 178 rai of beachfront land for years, though it is illegal as beach land is considered state property.
The director of the Phuket Legal Execution Office said his office served official eviction notices yesterday, and despite years of previous requests and demands to close the businesses, this time they are not messing about. The date has been set, and if the buildings aren’t removed by September 30, the government will remove everything for them.
The notices were posted in four different places and the business owners on the popular Phuket beach have run out of options to appeal the eviction. The director said that after four years of fighting court battles and appeals, and numerous complaints filed about the land encroachment with no action taken, the time has finally run out for the businesses occupying Layan Beach.
“The demolition is scheduled to be completed by September 30 or on the next business day. The buildings must go. A meeting of relevant agencies in the area was called, and it concluded that the intruders would be allowed to demolish the buildings within 15 days. There are no more chances to fight the case. If the deadline arrives and the buildings have not yet been demolished, the relevant departments will come to demolish them all.”
In 2017 the Supreme Court decided that the businesses using this land were considered to be encroaching on government property. The Department of Special Investigation served eviction notices on all the businesses on Phuket beach, but not all complied.
Several more attempts were made to evict the remaining businesses along Layan Beach over the past four years. Last year, the President of the Cherng Talay Tambon Administration Organisation issued a seven-day eviction notice in June, but no further action was taken and the businesses remained in place.
The OrBorTor was voted out of office in December and yesterday’s actions were taken by the new OrBorTor, along with Phuket Vice Governor Anupap Rodkwan Yodrabam, and the chief of the Phuket Land Office posting the eviction notices, with the blessings of Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew.
SOURCE: The Phuket News
