yep the owner of the 1 resort on poda island has now sealed of some of the beach and you have to pay if you want to cross the beach,locals will know who this is he is one of the richest men in the area guess his funds are running low.greed greed greed and more greed.

What's his name? Who is it?

Just walk through ankle depth water

While I am a believer in (properly policed) open beaches, I have also seen hotels pay out thousands of dollars every weekend to clean up the mess left behind in the form of litter, broken bottles, vomit and used hypodermic needles.

Any chance that's part of the decision process here, or is this just greed?

Who knows the real reason I was told it's only for 1 month you have to pay just seems like greed to me , we had people from the national park come and visit us the other week so my misses asked them about the 200 bht per person charge to go on hong island the park rangers said it's supposed to be 50 bht,considering there are no private beeches in Thailand and all beachland belongs to the king I think they are just taking the piss, I don't mind paying a small fee if the islands kept looking nice with working toilets and all that but this is never the case ,most feedback I get from people going out to the islands is it's overcrowded and slot of rubbish about the place,no excuse really for the rubbish takes a few people 1 hour aday to clear it but they don't seem to be able to manage that even.

Thought Poda Island had now been taken over by the National Parks,the previously owner being declared to have possessed The property illegally, How can he restrict the public,unless he's come to some arrangement with the authorities,like a lease or something?.

^

quite possible that's what has happened maybe it's the national park charging people, the people I know that payed were not on a private boat either it was an organized day trip with one of the big companies in ao nang ,it is this company that has said the charges are only for a month or so.