That came as a surprise to me so I checked on older photos and this one from 2 years back seems to confirm that.
But I thought it had been established that the problem was they had become permanent structures, whereas originally, they weren't. And whilst that has clearly been accepted as being in order, for some reason, it no longer is.
To be honest, it seems to me that someone above the local Mayor and municipality has been taking a look at what has been happening in Hua Hin and putting pressure on to ring the changes. All these issues - the piers, what we are discussing here, are all recent initiatives.