Phuket Surin Beach buildings destroyed

[webfact]

Phuket Surin Beach buildings destroyed
Tanyaluk Sakoot


The demolition of beachfront buildings at Phuket's Surin beach began this morning (Apr 20). Photo: Tanyaluk Sakoot

PHUKET: O-- fficials started demolishing the shorefront buildings at Surin Beach this morning (Apr 20), after years of deliberation and objection by tenants at the site.

More than 30 officers and 60 police are present for the demolition, including Royal Thai Navy personnel and Cherng Talay Tambon Administration Organisation (OrBorTor) chief MaAnn Samran.

The demolition team began pulling down the buildings just before 9am after serving months of notice to tenants to vacate their premises.

Already destroyed are the Catch and Bimi beach clubs as well as Pradab and Red’s Tablecloth restaurants. Work on deconstructing Zazada, at the northern end of Surin Beach, is underway.

As recently as Monday (Apr 18), about 36 tenants who occupy the Surin beachfront buildings urged the Phuket Governor to at least delay the deadline – and even to reconsider the demolitions altogether.

Full story: http://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-surin-beach-buildings-destroyed-57100.php


-- Phuket News 2016-04-20

[stuarty]

Get in there! Hope they tidy up.

[Old Croc]

Finally!

Hopefully we now don't have to hear any more whining from owners who have made fortunes from illegal occupation of the beach.

[bearpolar]

next year there will be a massive beach club and hotel resort built in this very same spot, attached to the conglomerate of business owned by a certain tax free person and it will be to honour a certain person's victory over the destroying of illegal beach businesses

[LivinginKata]

And many siad it would never happen. Some sort of public viewing gallery is supposed be built on the site.

[SooKee]

I guess now we can look forward to that beach looking the same as the rest of it. Empty of people and full of rubbish.

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[stevenl]

I guess now we can look forward to that beach looking the same as the rest of it. Empty of people and full of rubbish.

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I dont see that, I think the beaches are looking really nice now.

[Shot]

SURPRISE, SURPRISE This is long awaited great news.

[Oziex1]

Do the former squatters of these premises have what it takes to open new legal businesses elsewhere, or do they only know how to open doors with corruption?

[AJBangkok]

I have to say i'm not convinced this will change anything. Most of the beachfront restaurants that were demolished at Ley Peng/Layan beach have just set up 50 meters inland from their original locations and it's business as usual.

[stuarty]

50 metres inland is still public land. They will be cleared next week

[LivinginKata]

50 metres inland is still public land. They will be cleared next week

Not sure about that. Might well be private land. Remember it's an estimate of 50m further inland and we all know the 'high tide' mark is a metter of interpretation.

[phuketandsee]

Very sad news. Phuket exists because of the tourist industry and this was a great attraction employing lots of people. All you people bleating on about "illegal businesses" on "public land" - are all the businesses in Phuket legal? Patong's main industry is illegal but I don't see you complaining about that.

Now there will be a lot of unemployed people and dissatisfied tourists. The businesses could have been licenced and the beach protected. I suspect bearpolar is right and there will be a new resort here before too long. In the meantime it will become a giant rubbish tip.

[NamKangMan]

The Komatsu and Hyundai companies should use this photograph in an advertisement - "Not even Thai corruption can stop our machines."

[sendintheclowns]

Sort of a sad/ glad event. Nobody has yet come up with the answer to the question, tourists (Thai and foreign) are attracted, to enjoy the King's land. How do you allow some sort of commercialism to service their needs. ? And clean the beach, daily.

[steelepulse]

Sort of a sad/ glad event. Nobody has yet come up with the answer to the question, tourists (Thai and foreign) are attracted, to enjoy the King's land. How do you allow some sort of commercialism to service their needs. ? And clean the beach, daily.

In most countries the answer would be simple, taxation and local gov't administrating with the proper checks and oversight. Somehow here, proper checks and legit oversight really don't exist when it's all about the baht.

[SooKee]

In my opinion they would have been better licensing the places that stood there, especially places like Catch, Bimi and Zazada. There's plenty of other unspoiled natural beaches in Phuket (except for the trash all over the place), not every beach has to look the same. And these places didn't occupy all of the beach and did provide places to go that were a bit more up market than the surrounding soulless concrete beer bars full of jaded hookers.

These places also attracted high spending customers which is I'm sure it's what TAT'S definition of quality tourists translates to. I can really see people with the money to stay in hotels costing 5,7 and 10k per night rolling up their beach mat and heading off to the beach via the 7 to buy their bottle of water and sweaty cheese sandwich. Especially when it comes time for lunch or dinner and even more so now it looks like a building site.

Not everybody has to like the places. Not everybody had to go. Don't like them. Stay away. But I think demolishing places like these will have more of a negative than positive impact.

As to the it was all illegal argument. Sorry but I can't get too emotional about that. Who allowed these places to get built and continue for so long in the first place? Hardly the local fishermen or taxi mafia. And now, suddenly because the wind changed direction, it's all gotta go. Typical of the place really.

Edited April 21, 2016 by SooKee

[steelepulse]

>>Hardly the local fishermen or taxi mafia. And now, suddenly because the wind changed direction, it's all gotta go. Typical of the place really.

It's actually, who's watching the watchmen? Before no one was watching the local guys that were allowing this to go on as long as everyone got their cut.

[SooKee]

Precisely. I'm just reluctant to have a scathing view of businesses that merely go along with business as usual at the time. Especially when the business as usual is being helmed by those who are / were in authority. It is what it is here and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Maybe it'll be a different wrapping but the key ingredients will be the same.

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[sendintheclowns]

Don't gag on the words, but what is missing is professionalism, ethics, etc. Professionally managed beach facilities require an educated, ( actually call that experienced), well paid organisation - Phuket Island wide. Training centres of excellence for the management of the tourist facilities is abysmal. They just don't exist here, except in a minority of instances. Considering the amount of money flowing in from tourism, one would expect to see better - than training centres where locals learn fruit presentation.

I wish it got better, but I don't think so.

Heads would roll, if a popular, high-end beach in the West, was left the way Surin beach was left, the other day.

[stuarty]

Any pics of how it was left (I am not in phuket at the mo)