Jul 06 - Budget Speech By Trevor Hammond
Mr Speaker,
It is a cliché to say so, but it is both an honour and a privilege to stand here and deliver my first budget speech, here alongside my GSD colleagues both as a member of this Parliament and of Her Majesty’s Opposition with a duty to the people of Gibraltar to make enquiry of Government on their behalf.
Mr Speaker, if I may first turn to Europe as it has featured so prominently in the affairs of Gibraltar over the past few months, and crucially in the last fortnight with the results of the EU referendum and will doubtless be of great import in the months to come, if not indeed for the remainder of this Parliament.
I believe that the members of this house can be proud at the way in which we have come together and worked towards the singular objective of galvanising the people of Gibraltar, to make them understand the importance of the recent referendum and ultimately, to have them vote overwhelmingly for the outcome which we all here, and most of Gibraltar, believed would be the best for our community.
That we were unable to influence the overall result, that the result was certainly not that which any of us here desired, detracts not one iota from the efforts of members of this house, both in Government and Opposition in coming together and working to a common cause.
I agree with the Chief Minister when he said in his speech yesterday that the British people have made a gross error of judgement and echo his hope that the shock result can be turned into a success.
There is no escaping the fact that the result of the referendum and the exit of Britain from the EU will present challenges for our community. While it is well and good to use platitudes such as ‘business as usual’ to try and allay fears of an uncertain future, we must recognise that much work will have to be done to ensure that it is actually ‘business as usual’. I know that as with the referendum campaign, those on this side of the house representing Her Majesty’s Opposition stand ready to assist and support Government in those areas most critically affected by the referendum result. Our Community wishes to see its politicians working together for the common good, they have seen how effectively we can work together already, and they shall not find us wanting.
However, there is another aspect of ‘business as usual’ which it is important to respect and that is the fact that we are a Parliamentary democracy and as I have already said, we on this side of the house have a responsibility to the community to make enquiry on their behalf and hold Government to account, and so with this in mind, I turn to matters of transport.
Mr Speaker, it would be true to say that the Government’s still draft Sustainable Traffic, Transport and Parking Plan has been in this draft phase for an extraordinarily long period of time. We’ve had public consultations, we’ve employed expert consultants, we’ve even had a go at implementing a few of the draft recommendations, all without publishing the final report. Never has a Minister derived so much mileage, no pun intended, from a single document. There are many useful and important measures recommended by the plan, the Government must stop prevaricating, publish and commit to delivering those recommendations.
The plan states in its introduction that it is ‘a Government priority to provide a high quality transport system that people choose as an alternative to the car’ and, ‘a new network of bus routes that will provide fast, frequent services to destinations throughout Gibraltar’. I very much support both of those laudable objectives. However, what I see and what I hear from those who most frequently use the bus service is a failure to execute those objectives. A replacement bus fleet that users continue to struggle to access, route changes that have resulted in the elderly in particular having to change buses to access areas where previously they had a ‘hop on, hop off’ option.
The Minister will surely appreciate that not only are the elderly some of the most frequent users of the bus service, but that they are also most likely to be those who are struggling with the challenges of boarding the new buses; asking them to have to change at Market Place to continue their journey is simply to discourage them from using the service at all, or worse still, where they have no option but to use the service, which is frequently the case, to put them through unnecessary difficulty. I call on the Minister to once more review the bus routes, consult and listen to the user groups and ensure that a service is provided that will best suit the needs of those users.
While on the subject of buses I cannot avoid mentioning the other remarkable news from earlier this year that Government had sold 14 units of the previous bus fleet for the lowly sum of £15000 without any announcement or tendering process. It is quite astounding how fast and loose this Government can be with public money.
Parking controls and regulations are, according to the plan, at its core, yet what we have seen is the disbandment of the very agency designed to enforce parking regulations, the Highways Enforcement Officers, the Minister claiming that they were too expensive.
Most of the officers were transferred to the Borders and Coastguard Agency who rightly needed to be brought up to strength but this means that there was no real saving in the disbandment of the HEO’s and frankly, with the amount of illegal parking I see around Gibraltar I’d have thought that continued and proper enforcement would have largely covered the costs of HEO’s.
Regardless, the upshot is that rather than pursue the enforcement of parking controls and regulations, a core element of the STTPP, the Government has removed resources from this area and suggests that the service might be outsourced, albeit no commitment has been given to do so. Meanwhile, and I repeat, despite parking controls and regulations being a core element of the STTPP, enforcement is entirely left at the discretion of the RGP without guidance or the provision of additional resource by Government. I fail to see how this constitutes a successful execution of this recommendation.
Meanwhile, resident parking zones are not being properly explored, meaning a free for all exists between residents and visitors to areas, and this often includes competing with foreign registered cars in some areas. The availability of parking has never really recovered from the loss of Commonwealth Parade, the Park is wonderful but it never included the parking that was a manifesto commitment in that 100% delivered 2011 manifesto.
Since then we have robbed Peter to pay Paul over parking, spent vast sums, differing figures have been offered but at least £15M to build a phaoronic monument to ugliness in the middle of town. Net result is about the same number of spaces as we had before. Poor project execution and wasteful use of public money. Perhaps Government might consider taking serious measures to encourage the use of the car parks on Devil’s Tower road for their original purpose and establishing a park and ride service which might go some way to alleviating the stresses on parking while at the same time making a serious contribution to the air quality in the town area by reducing congestion.
Moving on to matters which I would have expected to be closed by now, based on previous Government rhetoric. I find myself asking ‘Where are the Redibikes?’ It appears they were far from ready when on the 9th of November last year the Government announced the imminent arrival of this scheme to encourage commuters out of their cars and onto bikes. Of course that announcement had to come with the expected condemnation of the previous scheme which this Government removed from service, but as also seems usual, execution of the project has not worked as anticipated.
The Press Release, at the beginning of last November I remind you, announced the imminent launch of a new bicycle hire scheme with the Minister saying that Government had received the bikes and associated infrastructure in early August! Imminent means that something is about to happen and whereas Government was keen to point out that the previous scheme was ‘fraught with problems’ one can only imagine how fraught with problems this scheme must be to cause a nine month delay to the project. One hopes the bikes are rather more carefully stored than the lifts for Laguna Estate or they may not be of much use by the time Government actually delivers this scheme.
Speed Cameras, another project where promises of implementation have proven to be optimistic. Coincidentally the Press Release announcing the new speed cameras was also issued on the 9th of November of last year, an auspicious day indeed for the Minister.
We were told that the ‘infrastructure works have been completed and fixed speed cameras will soon be sited at different locations’, indeed they were, and there they forlornly remain, still wrapped in their somewhat tattered plastic packaging. Back in November of last year the Minister was saying that “this will go a long way in reducing the incidence of indiscriminate speeding which will no doubt make our roads safer for all”. It should be recalled also that these cameras were publically lobbied for after certain tragic events.
So here we are, nine months later with no progress having been made on this project which was designed to make our roads safer. Is there so little regard for public safety that Government is not even able to see such projects through in a timely manner, even when they are so quick to make such announcements of their implementation as if completion is truly imminent? Time and again we see that their priorities are all wrong.
Remaining on the subject of public safety I must turn to the condition of our roads. Government occasionally makes attempts to persuade us that it is conducting a major programme of resurfacing our road infrastructure. What we actually see is piecemeal activity over small areas where, no sooner is the new surface laid, a utility company arrives to dig it up again, soon returning the road to its lumpy and potholed state.
The condition of our roads is a hazard to those on two wheels, whether that be motorbike or bicycle onto which the Government is keen to claim it is attempting to encourage us. I then look at the budget estimate and it becomes clear why this is so, despite the claims, and I shall quote the Minister here from his Press Release of 20th October last year where he says he “is happy to see continued investment throughout our road infrastructure through the road resurfacing programme”, that investment last year amounted to £280,000 with £300,000 more for the next year.
Does the Minister really believe that he can accomplish his commitment on such a paltry budget? Let me just put that in context, £40,000 has been set aside to replace the mace here before us, yet the entirety of the road resurfacing budget for next year is £300,000. Again, misplaced priorities and it’s frankly no wonder that so many people in Gibraltar prefer to buy 4 by 4 off road vehicles.
I will finish this part of my address on a positive, and that is to both note and welcome the imminent recommencement of the tunnel under the runway. Though this has not quite happened according to the timeline suggested by the Chief Minister after Her Majesties Government of Gibraltar won the litigation against OHL, his enthusiasm at that time, and after that victory, was understandable. It does appear that we are now in a position to commence this very important infrastructure project which will remove the delays to traffic caused by increasing numbers of flights at the airport, go far to alleviating the congestion caused by this in town and will also help in improving air quality around town and residential areas to the north of town, more on this later.
Mr Speaker, moving swiftly on, no idling here, from a Ministry which has been sustained by the creation and recommendations of a single draft report for over four years, to a Ministry which has produced so many reports that it is difficult to track them, let alone find the Parliamentary time to make proper enquiry as to the progress of the many recommendations contained within them.
On the Environment the Government has produced the Environmental Action and Management Plan, the Southern Waters of Gibraltar Management Scheme, the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan, the Management of Marine Resources in the Waters Around Gibraltar document otherwise known as ‘the fishing report’, and the Gibraltar Waste Management Plan to name but a few. We await with eager anticipation the significantly overdue Rock of Gibraltar Management Plan and Upper Rock Management Plan. Of course it is important to reference two comprehensive documents which were not produced by Government but by GOHNS, the Biodiversity Action Plan, Gibraltar: Planning for Nature and the Upper Rock Nature Reserve, A Management and Action Plan, now a few years old but both of which provide spectacular detail and are to be commended.
The point I am making is that there is a wealth of valuable environmental information at our fingertips, a wealth of recommendations which Government must decide how to prioritise and decide which to act on and which are perhaps either unachievable or insufficiently cost effective to proceed with. This is where it is vital that the Minister provide leadership to his very competent team in the Ministry. I do not believe that the Minister is achieving this not because he lacks the conviction to promote environmental issues, no one could possibly accuse the Minister of that in matters of the environment, but instead, rather like a child in a sweet shop, there are too many goodies and he is not sure where to turn.
This has resulted in the single biggest failure by the Minister to deliver on a commitment which should have been his top environmental priority but which has still not commenced over four years into his stewardship. I am of course referring to the Waste Treatment Plant which was promised in the GSLP/Liberal manifesto of 2011, yes, the manifesto claimed to have been entirely delivered; well, not in this case.
I feel ashamed at what I see whenever I visit Europa Point and look out over the Straight to admire the stunning view or in search of migrating birds, only to have my eyes drawn towards the slick of brown sludge emanating from beneath the lighthouse. I do not for one moment excuse the previous administration for not having resolved this shameful practice during its tenure, but neither can the Minister seek refuge in this failure to excuse his own abject failure in this regard.
It is not good enough to say that it is a complex project and time is needed to get it right. Given the proper priority, four years should be ample time. The LNG Power Station project must surely be at least as complex yet it has been commenced. The failure with the waste treatment plant has been a failure to prioritise while spending on other, more publicly attractive projects like Sandy Bay or the small boat marina or vanity projects such as the refurbishment to palatial standards of Number 6 Convent Place. I appeal to the honourable gentleman the Minister for the Environment, though I recognise the need for great prudence in the coming year as we navigate the effects of a Brexit, please, I ask that you make this your top environmental priority, if necessary your only priority. Remove this blight form our seascape, this terrible and stinking stain which overwhelms all the other good we might seek to do for the environment.
I will turn for a moment if I may and look to the draft Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure and in particular the Improvement and Development Fund Expenditure on projects. I find there many items with a ‘holding’ figure of £1000, which immediately leads one to think that the overall estimate for the coming financial year of £40 million is a low one, worrying in itself as Government continues with its lavish spending plans without any thought to prioritisation and prudence in this post referendum, imminent Brexit world.
What worries me more is that two of the most significant projects, the power station, construction of which has commenced, and the waste treatment plant, are not to be found amongst these Government projects, or at least their anticipated costs are not, leaving a huge question mark over the financial arrangements in place. More off book spending by Government? These are essential projects but they are also very expensive projects, we must know precisely how they are being financed and the fact is that the true expenditure on projects for the coming year will be higher than estimated.
Returning directly to matters of the environment, I ask the Minister in future to show firm leadership and conviction on issues which might court controversy but are nonetheless of clear import to the environment. While both the Environmental Safety Group and GOHNS were calling for a stop to the launch of balloons on National Day because of the known damage that the practice causes to the environment, calls I might add that on this side of the house were given unequivocal public support, we found Government prevaricating, leaving the decision to the SDGG and, as it does so often, avoiding making a decision on a matter which it perceives might be unpopular.
Of course we have become very used to the populist nature of this Government but I ask that just occasionally a little backbone is shown and support is given because an issue merits support, not because it is necessarily the popular thing to do. I incidentally must applaud the leadership shown by the environmental groups on this issue.
Air Quality has been the subject of recent exchanges between Government and Opposition in the press. Despite the insistence by Government that things are improving, that there is nothing to see here, the reality is that 2013 and 2014 were the worst years on record when it comes to air quality. The World Health Organisation did rank us below every other city in the United Kingdom in terms of the quality of the air we breath.
Now it would appear that we might have turned a corner and things might be getting better. I am accused of being a pessimist by the Minister, I can assure him I am not, I am very much a glass is half full kind of person, but the numbers being offered still require considerable scrutiny in order to determine their veracity because, in this period, some of the major contributors to air pollution have risen rather than fallen. There are more cars on our streets now than there were in 2012, Air Traffic has been rising by between 5 and 10 percent each year since the opening of the new airport, a tribute to the foresight of the previous administration, and these are positive economic metrics which are to be welcomed on the one hand, but which raise environmental concerns for which appropriate counter measures, sometimes simple expedients, must be deployed.
For instance, the Environmental Action and Management Plan recommended the placement of no idling signs at appropriate locations where traffic congestion tends to be at its worse. Not only have we not seen this recommendation carried out but there seems to have been no communication between Ministries as the Minister for Transport, when asked in this house whether this recommendation had been completed was unaware that it even existed, or what no idling signs were!
Stringent emission control at the MoT test centre to ensure that the vehicles being permitted on our streets are fit to be there and not contributing excessively to the pollution of the air we breathe. Simple, inexpensive measures Mr Speaker, yet crucial to improving air quality and requiring a push to ensure they are enacted.
On to matters of fishing, and in recent exchanges between the honourable the Minister and myself both in this house and in the media, the Minister seems proud to boast of the fact that there were only 192 illegal incursions by Spanish fishing vessels last year. Only! This might be down on previous years but it is a far cry from his 2011 manifesto commitment that said:
“We do not believe it is right to allow illegal fishing in our waters and we will stop this immediately.”
That manifesto which Government claims it delivered on 100% and another example where the reality of the situation belies the propaganda. The Government has pumped millions of pounds into the Royal Gibraltar Police marine section in order to enhance its capability. The Government has stated that it will enforce the laws contained in the Nature Protection Act. In a Government commissioned report ‘The Management of Marine Living Resources in the Waters Around Gibraltar”, colloquially known as the ‘Fishing Report’ published way back in 2012 a recommendation, indeed the very first recommendation is:
“That given the remaining uncertainties on fish stocks and catches, and the purpose of legislating under the Nature Protection Act 1991, there should be no commercial fishing within BGTW until such uncertainties have been resolved and a suitable management plan is in place if clarification provides sufficient evidence that a fishery is sustainable as part of a wider regional process”.
A recommendation conveniently ignored. As recently as May of this year GONHS were raising their concerns over illegal raking taking place in BGTW. They said “Unfortunately conch rake fishing has recently taken place in our waters, mainly sighted on the Eastern side close to the shoreline, without any apparent action by the authorities, despite the considerable maritime assets available to the RGP and the Department of the Environment. GONHS wishes to see the law to be upheld robustly and not flouted with impunity as is currently the case”.
I am not a lone voice in expressing concerns over the upholding of our laws in BGTW. A Government commissioned report agreed it was necessary, GONHS are dissatisfied and voices on Social Media criticising Government’s failure have been legion. The Minister cannot set these concerns aside and attempt to turn abject failure into success, I acknowledge he has a difficult task but that does not mean he can be excused failure. He made this issue his cause celebre, he must now deliver on his promises.
When we look at the progress on increasing the proportion of energy produced by renewables and reduction in overall energy consumption per capita I find the Minister’s answers in interviews with the press both interesting and revealing.
His language is always cautious while trying to play up the success his administration has had. He knows that in nearly five years in office we have barely moved forward at all. The will is there but again, there has been abject failure in execution. No real progress in smart metring, little capability for sale of power back to the grid, heavily subsidised power consumption, to the tune of over £20 million a year, so that the general public have little real knowledge of the financial cost, let alone the environmental cost, of energy usage. These things should have been done by now but again, Government priorities have been elsewhere and the environment has suffered.
The recent announcement of the commissioning of a wave power generator on the eastside did I must confess pique my interest, I did think that we were really making progress.
Alas only to find that this project, announced with as much fanfare as if it is the panacea to all global warming woes, turns out to be producing about enough energy to power a dozen light bulbs or, to quote the Minister, a few kettles. Granted this is a baby step in the right direction, but apart from this and a few solar panels here and there, this represents the sum total of our nation’s achievements in switching to renewables.
That 20% target by 2020 seems very far away at present and I’m yet to be persuaded that wave energy isn’t just an expensive gimmick too demanding to be a real solution. Solar on the other hand, and in our climate, would appear to be a far more viable alternative with technology becoming very affordable. Either way, let’s be sure to prioritise our efforts when it comes to using renewable resources and do our utmost to achieve that 20% target.
I’ll finish with the environment by talking a little about the management of invasive species of plants in Gibraltar. A remarkable transformation has taken place in this regard and in one particular location and that transformation should shine like a beacon for what can be achieved through real effort and application. It is a true demonstration of substance over style as opposed to the Government’s more usual style over substance.
The Minister will know immediately that I am referring to the Europa Foreshore where a scorched earth policy has been conducted against all plants not native to Gibraltar, to the point that such are now barely detectable. Native species have moved in very quickly, some have been planted to accelerate the progress and an Edenesque transformation has been accomplished. All this through the efforts of one man, and not even a Gibraltarian at that, a volunteer giving of his own time. I for one am grateful to Bart van Thienen for his supreme effort. I hope that Bart continues to receive the full support of the Ministry and that his work inspires the Ministry itself towards greater efforts in dealing with invasive species, giving our native species of flora, and by extension fauna, the best opportunity in which to flourish.
I shall now turn to planning. Mr Speaker. This GSLP/Liberal Government is doing precisely what it accused the previous GSD Government of doing but seemingly on an even larger scale over a shorter period. Gibraltar is being turned into that proverbial 'concrete jungle' with buildings of heights not previously considered being approved by the DPC, not necessarily in the interest of the wider community, and certainly not in the interest of the neighbours of these new constructions which are often schools.
There have been numerous instances over the past four years where the schooling of children has been directly affected by activity on an adjacent building site.
More and more, the people of Gibraltar are finding themselves hemmed in by buildings planned to reach unprecedented heights, such as the plans approved recently for Eurocity, where blocks will reach heights of over 69 metres, and not only this, but they then have to contend with construction project after construction project, causing them to suffer year after year of noise, dust and light pollution being generated by those developments.
If we take the example of Queensway and its environs, we see a concentration of current or imminent development that is unprecedented. Kingswharf, Mid-Town, Eurocity, West One, the Marriott and Rooke, years and years of building with vistas vanishing and nearby residents despairing. I am approached frequently by people with young families, in some cases extremely young, often in tears at the decisions that the DPC is making which will have a direct and immediate impact on the quality of theirs’s and their children's lives.
I hope that, as for environmental and heritage considerations, both of which are rightly given tremendous prominence in the decisions taken by the DPC, proper weight be given to the arguments of residents and proper consideration be given to their concerns when these enormous and irreversible projects are brought before the DPC in order that the commercial rewards do not always and inevitably trump those arguments and concerns as those on the receiving end often feel is the case.
Mr Speaker, it may be the case that the DPC now sits in public as the Minister for the Environment is always at pains to point out whenever I attend, and possibly on other occasions, but the processes by which it makes its decisions have not changed and it retains enormous discretionary powers.
It is also understood that certain areas must be set aside for development and that due to the confines of space in Gibraltar we must often build high rise. But I would ask that the two Ministers who routinely sit on the DPC and who can influence the decision making, just occasionally listen and accept the views of those who must live as neighbours of projected developments, and not only when it is politically expedient to do so as, was the case for the Europa Stadium proposal, but also when it is simply a case of showing some compassion.
Let us leave some areas aside for future development. I ask Government to reconsider for instance its plans to sell the site of Rooke, the largest single site likely to ever come into Government hands, to a developer who will inevitably wish to build high. I ask that Government, and by extension therefore the people of Gibraltar, retain ownership of the site, or at least a significant proportion of it, in order that it be put to community use but further, that future generations be handed over an area of land, one of the few remaining areas of any significant dimensions, to determine for themselves how they might wish to use it.
I ask Government to stop selling off the family silver at this extraordinary rate, £50M in the years 14/15 became £90M worth of sales of Government property and premia in the last financial year, I see a sharp fall in this revenue for the next financial year and hope that it is not simply because we have sold everything already, that it represents a welcome pause for thought.
Mr Speaker, this Government has made many commitments to the people of Gibraltar and I will not deny that it has delivered, or is in the process of delivering a number of those commitments, albeit perhaps not in the timelines that might have been anticipated. But scratch the surface and we find many promises that have not been delivered, often in areas of high importance as I have illustrated.
Within the portfolios of Environment and Transport in particular the scatter gun approach to delivery of projects has left some of the most important unfinished, or worse still, unstarted, while ministers nibble at the edges of progress, congratulating themselves for minor accomplishments while not delivering real and necessary progress.
I can assure the people of Gibraltar that while I sit on these benches I will work ceaselessly to penetrate the smokescreen of press releases and propaganda put out in a never ending stream by this Government and ensure that Ministers are held accountable for their promises, there commitments and their actions, pointing out the good, but creating awareness of the bad.
Finally Mr Speaker, my thanks to you for the guiding hand and patience you have shown as I learn the ropes in this Parliament and my thanks to the Parliamentary team for their continued help and advice.
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