Jun 17 - GSD Says Power Cut Was “A Graphic Illustration Of CM’s Incompetence”
The GSD’s Shadow MP for the Environment, Jaime Netto, has described the power cuts over the weekend, which prevented thousands of Gibraltarians from properly enjoying the Gibraltar v Germany football match on TV “as a graphic illustration of the incompetent handling by Mr Picardo of our power supply needs”.
“It is now four years after the Government got elected and not a brick has been laid commencing construction of the new power station. They do not even have safety reports in place showing that the proposed location of the LNG Installation supplying it is safe. The inescapable fact is that had the Government not broken its manifesto promise to honour any binding contracts which the GSD Government had signed in respect of the Lathbury Barrack power station, the latter would have been completed by now. It is also important people understand that the contract price agreed with the French company Bouygues for the Lathbury Barrack power station included a complete overhaul of the distribution network throughout Gibraltar which would have also been completed by now.
“The Government has nowhere to hide and cannot now blame the Opposition for these power cuts.
“It is not Spark Energy Limited that should apologise to people, it is the Chief Minister for his obsession to air brush away anything that is GSD and scrapping our plans for a power station. That was irresponsible and we are all living the consequences. It is also noteworthy that according answers provided in Parliament, half of all power cuts in 2013 and 2014 were due to faults in the temporary turbines which the Government imported after they were elected. That is just not good enough. Those were then replaced by the Sparks Energy temporary generators and now there appears to be a problem with them. The Government has to get its act together.
“I also note that the GSLP party machinery on Social Media is blaming some kind of sabotage for this latest power cut. I hope it is not suggested that Danny Feetham and I entered the Spark Energy power plant and pulled the plug during the game. Given the ‘blame the GSD’ mantra nothing would surprise me.”
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