Sep 02 - Government Says Latest Opposition Statement On Power Station Is Nonsense

The Government says the latest statement by the Opposition on the level of public consultation that existed on the North Mole Power Station project is complete nonsense.

A statement from No6 said: "It is clear that the Opposition simply do not know what they are talking about in relation to this subject, as on many other issues.

"The public consultation that has taken place is that required by the Gibraltar and European Law. The Opposition may not like the process but the reality is that it is the same one that they put in place themselves in 1999 when the current Town Planning Act came into force.

"The GSD are therefore only criticising themselves. The new Town Planning Act, which is available in draft form, provides for an even greater level of public consultation than exists at present.

"The Government is confident that the amount of public information for its proposed duel-fired power station is hugely greater than that provided for the GSD’s planned Lathbury diesel- powered power station. Thus, yet again, the Opposition are guilty of having double standards.

"It is absurd for the Opposition to complain about the amount of information that has been made public when the entire Environmental Impact Assessment was made available on-line and the entire meeting of the Development and Planning Commission, which included the experts, took place in front of the general public and in front of the media. This never happened when they were in Government when decisions were taken in secret and behind closed doors.

"It is also worth reminding everyone that, when the power station was first signed, it was done so on the basis that it was subject to the full planning process.

"The plain fact is that the new power station will be further away from people’s homes than the existing power station. It will also be less noisy and less polluting. No matter how much scaremongering the Opposition may wish to put across, they cannot get away from these basic facts."

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