A contingent of soldiers carried out an inspection of the beach late yesterday afternoon (Aug 28).
“We were there with municipal officials because we want to show them, the officials, that we were not impressed about the messy area and the rubbish throughout the area,” Col Santi Sakuntanark, Commander of the 25th Military Circle and the highest-ranking army officer stationed in Phuket, told The Phuket News today (Aug 29).
The beach over recent months has become a dumpsite for rubbish left behind by visitors and locals, with more washed ashore by the surging waves of the southwest monsoon.
Also, broken concrete has left rusting steel reinforcement bars exposed that visitors may easily be injured by.
“We want them to make it clean and neat. I understand they need time for everything they do. I just want to see the result of their working at every beach in the Cherng Talay area,” he added.
“I will follow up with them on this again next week, and will keep following up on this,” Col Santi said.
Asked if he had raised the issue with Cherng Talay Tambon Administration Organisation (OrBorTor) Chief MaAnn Samran, Col Santi simply said, “Everyone knew about this.”
Meanwhile, Capt Ekkachai Siri of the Phuket Tourist Police told The Phuket News today that a Royal Thai Police helicopter that landed at Surin Beach this morning was no cause for concern.
The helicopter was made available Pol Gen Rungroj Saengkram, Deputy Commissioner-General of the Royal Thai Police, who was in Phuket on Monday (Aug 27) to confirm additional charges being pursued over the Phoenix tour boat disaster. (See story here.)
“Gen Rungroj had an important meeting in Nakhon Sri Thammarat to attend. The helicopter was made available for him,” Capt Ekkachai said.
Meanwhile, Thalang Traffic Police today issued a notice to announce that they were holding a meeting today to prepare for a visit to Phuket by a member of the Royal Family.
No other details were forthcoming.