The Gibraltar Heritage Trust says it was pleased to be present in Parliament yesterday when the ‘Gibraltar Heritage and Antiquities Act, 2018’, tabled at yesterday’s session, was passed unanimously.

The Trust says the Act has been 18 years in the drafting and is a sum of the concerted efforts of many past and present Trustees, law drafters, successive Ministers for Heritage as well as members of the Trust and the general public who took the time to analyse and comment on the Command Paper, published in 2015, and the Bill, published in March this year. The Trust says it now looks forward to the commencement date for the operation and enforcement of the Act.

A spokesperson concluded: “Of significance is that the ‘Town Planning Act’ was also passed during the same Parliamentary session. This Act is crucial to the planning and management of our built environment and integral to the protection of the built heritage environment. Together, both the ‘Gibraltar Heritage and Antiquities Act’ and the ‘Town Planning Act’ will be indispensable tools in the management of Gibraltar’s physical and intangible heritage and mark the opening of a new chapter in the Rock’s record of heritage protection.”

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