Feb 27 - Gibraltar “Held Hostage” By Sustainable Traffic And Transport Plan - GSD
The GSD has accused the Government of holding Gibraltar “hostage” by its Sustainable Traffic And Transport Plan. The accusation comes in the context of a reply by Government to Opposition statements about what it describes as the “dire state” of parking and traffic in the town area.
Selwyn Figueras, shadow MP for Traffic and Transport, said: "This parking purgatory runs to the account of the GSLP Government, no one else. On the issue of traffic and parking, this Government has a genuine crisis of identity, a form of political schizophrenia. On the one hand, this self-professed 'green party' announces that they're going to spend over £200,000 on a sustainable traffic and transport plan created by experts from the UK, to understand what Gibraltar's traffic needs 'really are' and, before the survey has even so much as begun, they promptly close Commonwealth Parade Car Park at a cost of over 300 parking spaces right in the centre of town and set about building a lovely green park in its place. So far, so very green...
"On the other, when I suggest publicly that the parking purgatory might be their fault for having written off the Commonwealth Parade for a park and that the Government is therefore, somewhat car-unfriendly, along comes the bombshell: there are, apparently, plans to build a multi-storey car park in the mid-town area! Whatever happened to waiting for the sustainable traffic and transport plan?"
Selwyn Figueras continued: "Since the announcement of the plan, pretty much every question I have asked this Government about traffic policy has been met with the same, frankly useless, reply: 'we are awaiting the findings of the Sustainable Traffic and Transport plan.' The Government has used the plan as the excuse for not doing things as simple as installing a single bicycle rack anywhere in Gibraltar but have even used it to avoid making a public pronouncement about fixed speed cameras and the penalty points system which, frankly, beggars belief."
The GSD accuses the Government of hiding what it describes as its “lack of ideas” and genuine commitment to dealing with traffic, reducing reliance on cars and the promotion of other forms of transport behind the sustainable traffic and transport plan. It further considers that the GSLP Government has merely used the plan as a “convenient device” to delay any investment in traffic infrastructure as much as possible. "The manifesto clearly couldn't stretch that far," commented the Shadow spokesman.
"It is simply unbelievable that the government should think the people of Gibraltar so ignorant that they will not see right through the announcement of the multi-storey car park as a knee-jerk reaction to a party-politically inconvenient issue. It is this Government that wants to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds. If they were genuine about their environmental filter, they wouldn't be building more parking in the town centre: they would be focusing on measures to get people out of their cars and into buses, walking or cycling."
The Opposition also takes this opportunity to announce that, following some discussion by the Shadow Cabinet, the GSD is pledging its support for the fixed speed cameras and penalty points campaign and is keen to assist the Government, should it decide to pursue these measures, in any way it can.
“The deployment of fixed speed cameras in accident hotspots simply makes sense, for many reasons, not least for the deterrent value of such technology and the passive traffic calming effect of the presence of the cameras. The redeployment of RGP assets to other areas of policing or the enhancement of traffic policing itself are two resulting advantages which add further weight to the arguments in favour of such measures. As far as the penalty points system is concerned, the GSD considers that such a system could, in tandem with the continuing and sterling work of the RGP in respect of driving safety awareness, go some way towards further reducing traffic offending, in a manner which is tried and tested in many EU countries and around the world."
