City Hall's plan to reclaim the pavement near the Pak Khlong Talat flower market will deprive the area of its uniqueness, say flower vendors.
Vendor Sujitra Traisaksri, who attended a meeting with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) Tuesday, said the identity and heritage of the Pak Khlong Talat flower market will literally disappear if the vendors are banned from the pavement.
A group of vendors reacted aggressively at the meeting after the BMA insisted over 1,400 vendors have to move out of Bangkok's best-known flower market by Feb 29, to make way for pedestrians as a part of its clean-up campaign.
New locations will be provided at the newly renovated Yodpiman flower market and two fresh markets nearby that have been prepared to accommodate street vendors who relocate.
Ms Sujitra said over 1,000 vendors refused to move as the space that is being provided is not sufficient to accommodate all of them.
Krisada Chobprathumma, another vendor, said Pak Khlong Talat has been there for more than a century and has long been a leading agricultural and flower market in the country and a well-known tourist attraction in Bangkok.
He added that not only will the charm of the market be ruined by the plan, but farmers across the country will also be affected as an important marketplace for their produce will vanish.
Worse, the economy could also be affected by the relocation.
Speaking at the meeting, the Bangkok governor's chief adviser Wallop Suwandee said vendors will be allowed to occupy the pavement at Pak Khlong Talat until Feb 28.
No stalls should be operating on the pavement the following day.
Only 359 vendors out of more than 1,400 occupying the market were allowed to sell flowers on the pavement, he said, adding all will soon be banned.
EARLIER REPORT
'Illegal vendors' at Pak Khlong Talat told to move by Feb 28
Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has set Feb 28 as the deadline for vendors to move out of footpaths at Pak Khlong Talat, Thailand’s largest fresh flower market, but some operators vow not to comply.
The date was set on Monday at a meeting between BMA officials, vendors and relevant agencies to bring order to the Pak Khlong Talat market under City Hall's ongoing clean-up campaign to return pavements and public areas to pedestrians.
Wanlop Suwandee, chief adviser to the Bangkok governor, said sidewalks in the Pak Khlong Talat area had been taken up by flower stalls for many years, with some extending to the roads and causing traffic problems. It was one of the venues in Bangkok that BMA received the most complaints about.
Mr Wanlop said there were more than 1,400 vendors in Pak Khlong Talat but only 359 were operating at designated areas where streetside trading was permitted under BMA’s regulations. The remaining traders are operating illegally and would have until Feb 28 to move out.
Mr Wanlop said the city administration had prepared three sites that could accommodate almost 1,300 street vendors, more than enough to serve the traders told to relocate.
Located only 20 metres away, they are the five-rai Pak Khlong market for vegetables and fruit, the nine-rai Yodpiman market for flowers and the four-rai Song Serm Kaset Thai.
The market owners would collect normal space rental rates from the relocated traders with lease fee being waived for them in the first month, Mr Wanlop added.
At the meeting, it was reported that many vendors were angry and argued heatedly with the officials’ planned regulation of the Pak Khlong Talat market. They claimed the eviction was not a solution to the traffic problems in the area.
Kritsada Chobpathumma, the vendor’s representative, said Pak Khlong Talat was a trading hub for fresh flowers and agricultural produce known among Thais and foreigners for decades and had become a popular tourist attraction.
Clearing vendors on the walkways and relocating them elsewhere would just ruin the indigenous charm and down-to-earth characteristics of the well-known flower market. It will also financially hurt the sellers and the families of farmers supplying produce to the market.
Mr Kritsada called on BMA to reorganise the stalls at the market instead, adding the vendors would cooperate with the city hall in doing so.
Sujittra Traisaksri, a Pak Khlong Talat vendor, claimed more than 1,000 fellow vendors had affirmed that they would not relocate by BMA’s Feb 28 deadline and would continue their business as usual. She claimed the sales volume at the new locations would be much lower.
Mr Wanlop said City Hall would set Bang Lamphu, areas beneath the Memorial Bridge, Pratunam, Ratchathewi and Siam Square as its next targets for regulation.
BMA's campaign to clear street vendors has been successfully implemented at multiple locations including Khlong Lot, Tha Tian, Tha Chang, Tha Phra Chan, Bo Bae market, Khlong Thom market, Saphan Lek market including vendors selling inside Wat Rakang Khositaram Woramahawihan.