In an order issued on Saturday (Apr 1), Maj Gen Sermphan instructed Phuket City Police Chief Col Pratuang Pholmana to spearhead efforts to make parking spaces available again to the public, with special attention to be given to motorbike rental operators on Montri Rd, in Phuket Town.
Maj Gen Sermphan explained that police had received many complaints of rental operators occupying public parking spaces on the streets, leaving other people, including local residents, nowhere to park.
Initial efforts are to explain to motorbike and car rental operators that public parking spaces are for public use.
Officers are also to remind the operators that any person renting a vehicle, both Thais and foreigners, must have the correct licence, the order added.
Meanwhile, rental operators were informed that placing any objects, such as signs, chairs or any other object, to reserve parking spaces for their own use was illegal under the Act on the Maintenance of the Cleanliness and Orderliness of the Country B.E. 2535 (1992). (See here.)
The Phuket Info Center, operated under the Phuket office of the Ministry of Interior, this morning posted a notice by the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) warning that under Section 19 of the Act, offenders who place any objects that obstruct traffic without permission from the relevant official may be fined up to B10,000.
In line with how the Act is enforced in Bangkok and Pattaya, people who provide photo or video evidence when reporting other people reserving public parking spaces for their own use stand to receive 50% of the fine imposed, the CIB warning explained.
Further fines that may be imposed on people who reserve public parking spaces for their own use included a fine of up to B500 under the Traffic Act and a fine of up to B5,000 under the Criminal Code, the CIB warning noted.
Kurt | 04 April 2023 - 11:38:06