Officials remove fence from Phuket beach following complaints

There’s been another incident involving a business allegedly encroaching on a Phuket beach.

Officials removed a fence from Kamala Beach following several complaints that the fence encroached upon the beach. The business accused of encroaching on the beach is a beach bed operator.

Law enforcement officers inspected the area where the operator was ordered to remove the fence from the beach, The Phuket Express reported yesterday.

This incident is the latest case of drama over structures being built on Phuket beaches, a hot-button issue in the island province.

In November, police removed illegal food and drink venues from another Phuket shoreline, Layan Beach. The police found three venues on the beach that were providing food and drinks, as well as chairs, sunbeds, and umbrellas. The police confiscated these items.

Eviction notices for the Layan Beach structures were served in 2017 when the Supreme Court ruled that occupiers were illegally encroaching on state land. Several “final warnings” were issued, with the last eviction notice delivered on September 12. The notices were posted in four different places and the business owners on the popular Phuket beach had run out of options to appeal the eviction.

After the police removed the illegal structures, they planned to recover the beach’s nature. A mass tree planting and beach cleanup was planned to help recover the area. The recovery efforts would focus on 172 rai of land out of the site’s 178 rai.

The chief of the Cherng Talay Sub-district Administration (OrBorTor) said that OrBorTor had set aside 5 million baht to cut grass and care for the trees planted at the site. The chief, Manoch Punchalad, added that the area would later have sculptures, parking facilities, and toilets.

Time will tell if Phuket officials can find an effective solution to the problem of illegal structures on the island province’s beaches.