Municipal announcements

Yesterday the rename of two municipalities was announced in the Royal Gazette.

• Tha Nam Oi (เทศบาลตำบลท่าน้ำอ้อย), Phayuha Khiri district, Nakhon Sawan province, renamed to Tha Nam Oi Muang Hak (เทศบาลตำบลท่าน้ำอ้อยม่วงหัก) [Gazette]. The municipality covers both of the subdistricts Tha Nam Oi and Muang Hak, but so far only one of the subdistricts was represented in its name.
• Ban Dan (เทศบาลตำบลบ้านด่าน), Phayuha Khiri district, Ubon Ratchathani province, renamed to Ban Dan Khon Chiam (เทศบาลตำบลบ้านด่านโขงเจียม) [Gazette]. The municipality covers parts of the subdistrict Khong Chiam, which was previously not represented in its name.

Both name changes were effective February 25, and were both discussed in the board meeting on December 26 2012. Strangly, apparently neither of them was approved by the board to consider name changes - at least the above linked meeting transcript does not mention it, nor did the announcements itself mention in which meeting the name change was approved.

 I haven't yet had the time to write up on two further municipal announcements from last Friday, changes in the boundaries of municipalities and TAO.

• Sai Noi (เทศบาลตำบลไทรน้อย), Sai Noi district, Nonthaburi province, gets enlarged by parts of Mu 1 of TAO Khlong Khwang (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลคลองขวาง) and parts of Mu 5 of TAO Sai Noi (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลไทรน้อย). The announcement is done in three parts, one for each local administrative unit affected [Thesaban, TAO Khlong Khwang, TAO Sai Noi]. Not sure of after the change those two Muban belong completely to the municipality - in that case it'd be interesting to know what happens with the elected councilors from these villages, are they allowed to stay in the council till their term ends, or do they have to vacate the no longer available seats directly?
• Chao Phraya Surasak (เทศบาลตำบลเจ้าพระยาสุรศักดิ์), Si Racha district, Chonburi province [Gazette]. There is however no corresponding announcement for any other local government unit with which area was swapped, and the latest boundary definition dates back to 1991, when the municipality was still the sanity district Ao Udom (สุขาภิบาลอ่าวอุดม). But the announcement from 1991, unlike most other area change announcements for sanitary districts, does not include a map.So this could also be just a new definition to clear up any inconsistencies or not fully clear definitions.

Municipal boundary adjustments

Yesterday, four announcements were published in the Royal Gazette, adjusting the boundaries of municipalities and TAO in two provinces.

• Subdistrict municipality Mae Phrik (เทศบาลตำบลแม่พริก), Mae Phrik district, Lampang province and the TAO Mae Phrik (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลแม่พริก). The announcement was done in two parts [Thesaban, TAO], and as usual only the announcement for the municipality includes a map. The previous municipal boundary dates back to the creation of the sanitary district Mae Phrik in 1956 [Gazette]. Comparing the two maps, the area of the municipality was enlarged significantly, adding area to the north and even more area to the south of the original municipality area. An interesting question would be whether there will now be early elections for the councils and mayor of the two local governments - the terms for the TAO will end in December 2013, the terms for the municipality in January 2014. At least for the municipality, first the Election Commission has to draw new constituency boundaries, the ones from 2004 are now of course obsolete.
• Subdistrict municipality Ban Mai (เทศบาลตำบลบ้านใหม่, Gazette), Mueang Phayao district, Phayao province and subdistrict municipality Tha Champhi (เทศบาลตำบลท่าจำปี, Gazette). Both municipalities cover the whole same-named subdistrict - both were upgraded from being a TAO in 2009. Since Ban Mai is located directly north of Tha Champhi. Thus this announcement correlates with a change of subdistrict boundaries in 2012 [Gazette] - which mentions Ban Mai, Tha Champi and Ban Tam. maybe for the municipality Ban Tam there'll be a similar announcement forthcoming. Interestingly, both Ban Mai and Tha Champhi had their first local election as a municipality on February 21 this year, 1302 days after the last TAO council term had ended. Apparently the Election Commission waited with drawing the constituencies until this boundary issue was settled, the constituencies were announced in the Royal Gazette last November (Ban Mai, Tha Champi). More than three years without an elected local government is a very long time the government-installed municipal clerk (Palat Thesaban, ปลัดเทศบาล) could manage the municipality completely alone.