City Hall to enforce footpath vending ban on Khao San Rd

City Hall to enforce footpath vending ban on Khao San Rd

Street vendors on Khao san Road gather at City Hall and ask the governor to rescind  a district order banning them from the footpaths from Wednesday, and moving them onto the road surface. The request was refused.(Photo by Theerayut Boonsirirungruang)
Street vendors on Khao san Road gather at City Hall and ask the governor to rescind a district order banning them from the footpaths from Wednesday, and moving them onto the road surface. The request was refused.(Photo by Theerayut Boonsirirungruang)

Street vendors on Khao San Road, a major tourist destination, on Tuesday asked City Hall to overturn a district office order banning them from the footpaths from Aug 1, but the city administration refused.

More than 100 street vendors converged on City Hall to submit their request in a letter to Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang.

They asked  for the recission of the order issued by Phra Nakhon district office. 

The regulation banning hawkers from Khao San footpaths from Aug 1 will affect 200 vending stalls. They will be moved to allocated areas on roads, like vendors in the Yaowarat area, known as Chinatown.

The vendors argued that setting up vending stalls on the road surface may cause a danger to them and to tourists if it rained. The road would be flooded.

They said the district office had notified them of the footpath ban only one week in advance.  

Pol Gen Aswin received the group’s letter and assigned his deputy Sakonthee Phatthiyakul to talk with them.

After the meeting, Mr Sakonthee said the BMA would allow the order regulating vending on Khao San Road to be implemented as planned.

Vendors would be cleared from the footpaths, which would be returned to pedestrians, the deputy Bangkok governor said. 

The "Big Cleaning" would be launched on Khao San Road on Wednesday. 

The BMA had already arranged with the Metropolitan Police Bureau for the daily closure of Khao San Road to vehicles from 6pm until midnight, to allow hawkers to trade on the road surface, he said.

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