Instead they have presented the “Mahakan Model”, which calls for the mutual development of the area that extends from the centuries-old fort to the Ong Ang canal.

“We are waiting to hear the response from the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration,” Tawatchai Woramaha-khun said yesterday in his capacity as the chair of the Mahakan Fort community.

“Let’s go for mutual coexistence. Let us live here. We will take care of the public park the BMA is about to create [there].”

The Mahakan Fort community is home to about 300 residents. They have promised to take care of the park for free, if the city administration allocates a small plot for them to continue living on in the area where they have grown up.

“We want to live in our old homes. Together, our whole community will need just a little over more than one rai [0.16 hectares],” Tawatchai said.

He said if the BMA allowed the community to remain, the spot could become a new cultural attraction.

Locals have said they could teach visitors how to make ceramic sculptures and birdcages, their main livelihoods.

“I can watch out for visitors’ safety too,” Thongpoon Tularak, 74, said.

Tawatchai submitted a letter to the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning as well as the secretary of the Rattanakosin Island Committee, calling for a review of the authorities’ plan to develop the Mahakan Fort neighbourhood.

Yesterday, a representative of the community also petitioned to the Central Administrative Court asking for an injunction against the BMA’s eviction order against the Mahakan Fort Community’s residents.