Parties involved in settling the Mahakan Fort community land conflict appear to have gone back to square one as City Hall agreed yesterday to set up a new panel to handle the case.
A source close to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) said yesterday that the existing tri-partite panel -- comprising delegates from the BMA, community, and the military -- agreed to set up a new panel comprising historical and architectural experts to verify if 24 of the remaining houses in the community are worth conserving.
The 24 houses, suggested by Association of Siamese Architects last week, were also similar to that suggested by Silpakorn University's Chatri Prakitnonthakan who conducted a study in 2006.
According to the source, the houses will be checked by experts to determine if they possess any historic or modern value. After the inspection, they will discuss whether each house should be conserved.
Public participation should always be included in modern management approaches adopted by government agencies, said the source, adding the level of public participation will need to be discussed.
The source said the verification process will start as soon as possible, but there was no discussion about the eviction of community residents and their belongings. Mr Chatri doubted that the measure which the BMA will use to verify the historical and artistic values of the houses in the community will be valid.
If the BMA uses the Fine Arts Department's (FAD) standard, he said, only a few houses will meet the FAD's high-end standard. Mr Chatri said the FAD's two main criteria are the age and artistic value.
Only six or seven will meet the first as they are over 100 years old, he said, adding not more than two from the first will pass the second criteria. These houses have been occupied, so they do not possess artistic merit by FAD standards, Mr Chatri said.