The GSD has said that the Transport Minister’s latest statement “reflects a complete lack of a coherent vision” in respect of traffic and transport management and how our people move around our City.

A statement continued: “This week the Government hailed the new Highway Code as the “biggest shake” up to the highway rules and whilst the Opposition supports the sentiment, it is clearly nowhere near enough to deal with systemic issues affecting transport and the impact that heavy traffic is having on the environment, our health and wellbeing. After many months of silence on the part of the re-appointed Transport Minister and in the wake of the utter failure of the former Transport Mr Daryanani in relation to the abysmally planned Line Wall Road project, apart from tweaking of the Highway Code, the Transport Minister has done very little indeed to shake up transport. It should be noted that a revised Highways Code is nothing new and it is simply a copy and paste of the new Rules that have been introduced in the United Kingdom and in the Crown Dependency of Jersey on 29 January 2022. Mr Balban is not trailblazing in his efforts to make our lives easier and prioritise the lives of cyclists and pedestrians, all he is doing lazily copying what is done in the United Kingdom and Jersey with slight alterations for the Gibraltar context.

Shadow Transport Minister Elliott Phillips said:

“In the United Kingdom the Government there conducted a massive consultation over 4 months in 2020 and received more than 20,000 responses in relation to the changes. The Government here has failed to consult the public or those responsible for enforcing traffic laws on the changes it seeks to introduce. It should be noted that GBC asked Mr Balban directly whether he had even consulted the Royal Gibraltar Police on the changes to the Highway Code and he couldn’t even confirm that he had. Whilst the introduction of a revised code will be generally welcome, people want to see the real substantive changes that were promised in 2019, namely, the creation of green and child friendly city. The Government have failed to make an inroad into that vision and sustainable traffic and transport solutions to improve the lives of all of our citizens.

“It is clear that the Government is paying lip service to addressing the serious issues around traffic and transport infrastructure which ultimately impacts on our environment and the health and wellbeing of our all citizens. For example, no attempt has been be made by the Government to implement measures to encourage business using goods vehicles to convert to hybrid and or electric vehicles. No attempt has been be made to ban the use of gas guzzling motorcycles; no attempt has been made to introduce legislation around the position in respect of E-scooters. No plan has been announced as to how we can genuinely encourage safe cycling in Gibraltar despite the numerous examples of town and cities across the world that have challenging infrastructure and geography. Moreover, no attempts have been made to seriously reduce the volume of traffic on our roads coming directly across the land frontier. These are a few of the many big issues which have been pushed to one side. It is clear for all to see that despite his passion for cycling in Gibraltar, the Transport Minister has an uphill struggling in convincing the Chief Minister of making real sustainable changes to transport and traffic policy.”