Phuket residents block entrance to hotel

PHUKET: More than 200 residents from Baan Ao Makham blocked the entrance to a Cape Panwa hotel last Thursday (February 19) in protest against a letter of complaint they believe the hotel sent about noise disturbance from a nearby mosque.



By Suthicha Sirirat

Monday 23 February 2015, 11:03AM

The group believe the hotel had sent a complaint letter about noise from a nearby mosque.

The residents believe that the Phuket Panwa Beachfront Resort sent a complaint letter to the Prime Minister̕s Office about loud noise coming from the Iszhatul Mosque between 5-6am and 11pm-midnight every day.

The group were demanding an answer over the issue, with the leader stating that the complaint is not justified especially as the mosque never has calls to prayer between 11pm and midnight.

The protest came to the attention of Vice Governor, Somkiet Songkhawsuttirak who arrived at the scene together with police.

The residents requested that the Damrongtham Centre and Prime Minister̕s Office provide them with the name of the person who filed the complain.

They also wanted the Phuket Panwa Beachfront Resort to speak to them about wether they had issued the letter or not and stated that if the problem was not solved within a week they would take the matter into their own hands.

A representative from the resort told V/Gov Somkiet and the protesting group that the resort has been there a long time and that they had never filed such a complaint.

They advised that the resort CEO is currently in Bangkok and therefore could not comment any further on the matter.

However, the representative advised that the CEO would be back in Phuket on February 26.

V/Gov Somkiet told all parties to meet again on February 26 but some residents stayed and blocked the entrance of the resort while others went home after speaking with the V/Gov.