Big fish get big money from Hua Hin parking

In a busy tourist town like Hua Hin, roadside parking is a gold mine for some corrupt policemen.
While holidaymakers find it hard to park their vehicles, owners of rental cars and illegally-operated vehicles, including tuk-tuks, non-metered and black licence plates taxis, have the luxury of a parking space around the clock.

Each is believed to pay 300-500 baht a month in parking fees, which are collected by illegal collectors who work for some ``phuyai'', or ``senior'' police officers.

It is widely known these collectors keep 10-20% of the fees for themselves, siphoning the rest into the pockets of the officers, said a source who asked not to be named.

Lack of public parking spaces is a problem for a town that attracts nearly two million tourists a year. Local residents also find the problem irritating.

Pol Maj-Gen Detnarong Suthicharnbancha, commander of Prachuap Khiri Khan police and chairman of the province's working group to solve traffic problems in Hua Hin, said his office has gets floods of complaints from both groups.

The police said the working group will ask Hua Hin municipality to issue a regulation to collect parking fees on public streets and send its officials to collect the fees on main roads in order to keep the illegal collectors away.

Voravit Sirinukulwattana, of Prachuap Khiri Khan's land transport office, agreed with the idea as a long-term measure to keep Hua Hin's streets in order.

He said the ignorance of relevant agencies had given extortionists the chance to use public areas to make money, creating problems for local residents and tourists.

Thanakit Pithaknethisak, an operator of a songtaew minibus, said minibus operators are also unhappy. ``We won a concession from land transport authorities to operate in Hua Hin but we could not park our vehicles on public roads as illegally-operated vehicles and tuk-tuks occupied the areas.''



Manu Tharnpipitchai, former chairman of the Hua Hin Tourism Association, said the occupation of public streets was a chronic problem, which had escalated into a conflict between operators of passenger minibuses who had received concessions to operate in the town and operators of illegally-operated vehicles who paid fees to mafia extortionists.

Operators of registered vehicles claimed their incomes dropped after the rental vehicles began plying the streets.

Pol Col Amnuay Worayawisut, chief of Hua Hin police, said a conflict had long existed between the two groups.

Authorities have recently set up a working panel to work out a solution. The panel agreed to register the rental vehicles, controlling their numbers while regulating street parking lots.

He also ordered a probe into the alleged involvement of police in the extortion.
Bangkok Post 4 July 2005