City Begins Imposing Order On Streetside Trading

City begins imposing order on vending at Victory Monument

BANGKOK: -- The city began its attempts to impose order on streetside trading at Victory Monument yesterday by barring trading on the footpath, moving stalls from the walkway to a designated area and downsizing stalls.

It will also ban streetside trading citywide on Mondays starting from the middle of next month.

Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin and national police inspector-general Pol Gen Sereepisut Temeeyaves, who chairs the anti-roadside mafia panel, yesterday afternoon inspected the city's operation to bring order to streetside trading at Victory Monument.

They were informed by Ratchathewi district chief Sawang Boonyasit that the district had removed all vending stalls at two major points around the monument _ along Phahon Yothin road and in front of the Fashion Mall shopping centre.

He said the district had renovated the entire area, reducing the area of each stall to 1.5 square metres from two square metres in a bid to increase the number of stalls at the monument along Phahon Yothin road to 174 from 92.

From now on, it would forbid streetside trading on the walkway and have all stalls on the footpath moved to a designated area along a canal.

The governor and the police inspector-general later inspected the area and found Fashion Mall shopping centre had booths on the walkway beside its building for leasing to street vendors. Pol Gen Sereepisut voiced his objections and told the district to find a solution and discuss the issue at future meetings.

They also met about 20 representatives of 85 street vendors on Soi Phahon Yothin 1 who were protesting against Phaya Thai district's ban on streetside trading there starting from July 1. Mr Apirak suggested they appeal to the district directly.

The city and the Metropolitan Police Bureau recently agreed to ban streetside trading on Mondays starting from July 1 after their survey found that most vendors were against the idea of imposing the ban on Sundays when there were many customers and because traffic was bad on Mondays, he said.

He said the city would help street hawkers whose stalls had to be removed by organising a fair at its sports stadium in Din Daeng from July 1-3 for affected vendors to register for 7,000 new stalls in designated areas in several districts.

--Bangkok Post 2005-06-28