Nov 18 - Government Says "40,000 Vehicles In 6 Square Kilometres Does Not Go"

The Government of Gibraltar says it is downright unreasonable for the Opposition to pretend that car parking issues started on the day that the GSLP/Liberal Government was elected as if there was no such problem during their own time in office.

The fact is that different Governments have adopted different measures in an attempt to tackle car parking and that this administration has been particularly active on this front.

A spokesman for Number Six said: "The reality is that there are over 30,000 registered vehicles in Gibraltar, of which about 17,000 are private cars, over 2000 are commercial and 11,000 are motorcycles. This means that there are approximately 5000 vehicles per square kilometre in terms of locally registered vehicles alone. However, in addition to this, there are approximately 8000 motor vehicles which cross the border into Gibraltar every day.

"Since this Government elected in 2011, the number of vehicles on our roads has risen by over 5000.

"It is very easy for the Opposition to simply criticise this issue as if they were operating in a vacuum and without showing any knowledge of the facts.

"The fact is that nearly 40,000 vehicles in 6 square kilometres does not go.

"The Government has taken several initiatives to tackle the matter. The most obvious is the construction of a car park with 1000 spaces at Mid-Town right in the city centre. This provided over double the number of car parking spaces than those that had existed in Commonwealth Parade and is free for residents during certain hours.

"A number of specific parking issues were tackled head on through the construction of a car park at Eastern Beach, for example, with over 400 spaces and the extension of that at Catalan Bay to provide for beachgoers particularly during the summer months. A further car park was provided for this purpose and for general use at Western Beach as well. More car parking spaces were created at Coaling Island which for many years had been virtually neglected and where there had been a poor use of space.

"A new car park was built at South Pavilion and discussions are underway to provide more spaces in the South District as well. The Government has also encouraged the construction of a multi-storey car park with several hundred car spaces for public use at Glacis Road. This is now underway and it will benefit both residents and users of the leisure and sporting amenities in that area. A smaller car park was also opened at upper landport and in order to encourage greater circulation of cars a number of areas have now been designated as 'Pay and Display.'