  |
On the road to nowhere?
|
by Brian McCann
‘We sincerely want the government’s plan to work for Gibraltar’ said Gilbert Licudi; ‘but from their track record it doesn’t seem likely that most of the work can be done in two years. And if it is achieved in that time, then the disruption will be enormous.’
Gilbert Licudi was speaking as opposition spokesman for traffic in response to the government’s Integrated Traffic, Parking and Transport Plan at a media conference to introduce the GSLP/Liberal’s document on the issue.
‘The government will be judged by results,’ he said, adding that the projected completion time for the majority of the new works would coincide with the next election in Gibraltar, ‘which seems to me to be a ploy’.
He said that many of the points contained in the government document were issues that he had raised time and time again in parliament, but ‘government had taken no heed.’
When asked why it had taken his party three weeks to respond to the proposals, he explained that, ‘we have taken our time because we needed to study the plan in detail and we now feel that our response is proper and appropriate. We didn’t want to jump into it without careful consideration as this is an important matter.’
OWN PLAN
Asked if his party had any positive alternative proposals, he said: ‘All we can do at this stage is respond. If elected in two years then we would be in a position to produce our own plan, with all of the technical facilities that are available to government.’
He also said that it would be necessary to review the progress that had been made or not made by the present government and proceed from there accordingly. ‘We would be obliged to complete any projects that were already under way’.
The opposition’s detailed statement says: ‘Government has allowed the problem to escalate to almost crisis levels before deciding it was time that real and effective measures were required.’
DELAY
It makes the point that the chief minister recognised the seriousness of the problem in January, 2008, but virtually nothing was done to tackle the problem during that year. It then adds that twelve months later, in his New Year’s message for this year, he said that the government’s plan would be published in the next few weeks. The GSLP/Liberal’s response comments that the chief minister’s few weeks turned into almost ten months without any explanation being given for the delay.
‘It is obvious that a change in attitude is essential,’ Mr Licudi told the meeting.
The document is scornful of the government’s handling of the ‘saga of Dudley Ward tunnel’, from the time it has been out of use as a result of a fatal accident in February, 2002, to the fact that it had in the meantime been used as a dump for rubble which will now cost £1 million to remove to another location.
He said that much of the government plan is copying what the opposition had committed itself to in its last election manifesto, whilst other parts of it are mere statement of the obvious. ‘There is no commitment to a new road scheme other than improvements to existing carriageways.’
He added that his party had said that their scheme would require a gradual, phased, introduction, rather than a rush to get it all done at once. He was also surprised that the use of existing tunnels had not been considered for roads and for parking. ‘We did commit to that in our earlier manifesto,’ he said.
The response also comments on the government’s election manifesto plan to provide 400 parking spaces at the Midtown development, but the new plan envisages only 100. ‘So 300 spaces seem to have vanished into thin air,’ said Gilbert Licudi.
On the proposed New Harbours/dockyard road, he pointed out that the road had been a government commitment in 2007, ‘yet now it’s something they are studying for feasibility.’
Licudi’s report comments on the inclusion of road works in the government plan, such as Winston Churchill Avenue and Sir Herbert Miles Road, ‘which were completed years ago.’
FREE OR PAID BY USERS?
It also extensively covers parking, including asking if the proposed estate multi-storey car parks will be free or paid for by the users. He says that he has reminded the government in parliament on numerous occasions of the appalling state of the bus shelters, yet neither maintenance nor replacement has been carried out.
On the government’s plans for the upper town’s bus service, he said that this is something that the GSLP/Liberals have been pressing continuously for the government to resolve, specifically the issues of suitable vehicles and routes. ‘There have been extensive delays and a tender process that has not resulted in the purchase of appropriate buses,’ he said.
|
|
|
|
