The GSD has issued a statement highlighting concerns regarding the condition of New Mall House.

A statement from the GSD follows below:

The Government’s policy as to the provision of an adequate police station for the Royal Gibraltar Police (“the RGP”) appears to be as confused and lacking as their approach to resourcing the police force.

Shadow for Justice, Joelle Ladislaus MP said: “The Government are well aware, and have been for a long time, of the infrastructural problems relating to New Mole House (“NMH”). It is obvious that the building is not appropriate for a modern police force to operate from without risking the safety of staff, visitors and individuals who are under arrest and being detained at NMH. The opposition has been making these points for years now and it is unsuprising that matters have come to a head following water ingress as a result of recent inclement weather, which has forced the closure of part of NMH because of a risk of exposure to asbestos.

As recently as the 2023 general election, the Government’s manifesto read: “We have been working to deliver new stations for the Gibraltar Fire & Rescue Service as well as for the Royal Gibraltar Police. It is envisaged that both will be at Rooke. The designs for these have now been agreed and signed off. The final execution of the grant of the tender for Rooke will enable these plans to go ahead in coming months.”

However, just 14 months later, during exchanges in Parliament, the Minister for Justice confirmed that the Government were “looking at new plans for the refurbishment and extension of the existing police station at New Mole House”, citing “technical problems” as the reason for the decision to refurbish the exisiting New Mole House Police station, rather than providing the RGP with a new, purpose-built facility that is suitable for modern day policing.

When the Government were pressured further for answers as to why they had made such a significant U-turn, the Deputy Chief Minister’s response was as perplexing as it was unsatisfactory when he stated that the issues related to the size of the building and “concerns in relation to its proximity to the city walls.”

Considering that the Government claimed to have already agreed and signed off plans by late 2023 for the new station to be built at the Rooke site and would therefore already have had an idea as to the size of the building, it would seem that the Government either made a manifesto promise that it never intended to keep, or the subsequent decision not to build there has nothing to do with the reasons given in Parliament.

In any event, the question must be asked- why hasn’t the Government identified an alternative location to build a new police station?

At the end of the Parliamentary exchange, the Deputy Chief Minister summarised as follows:

“…..the Government can say exactly what it is saying, and that is that we took a policy decision based on the information available at the time, and the information available at the time was that because of the growth in the number of officers and the need to provide certain facilities, the building suddenly grew from what was originally intended, and because of that we found a better solution, which was to move it somewhere else.”

The Government’s policy in regards to NMH remains a mystery still to be deciphered. What is clear though is that the state of NMH is not just inadequate and the building unfit for purpose, but now poses serious health and safety risks which need to be addressed without further delay.”

The Government owe it to the men and women of the RGP who put their personal safety on the line every day to provide them with facilities where they can carry out their jobs in adequate and safe conditions. The opposition now call for the Government to reveal its plans in relation to NMH because continued secrecy on the matter serves no purpose other than allowing the Government to continue to hide behind a façade of uncertainty.