Building sites go up from 16 to 83 in 10 days

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 Thursday, May 14, 2020 - 10:20

The planning process is an essential prerequisite to investment, economic development, and construction. The first meeting of a “COVID DPC” took place on 17 April.

Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia, speaking at yesterday's press conference, added: Decisions were then taken by round-robin.

Public participation had already occurred in some of the applications that were considered.

In others, the procedures did not require it. 

Different solutions for remote meetings are now being actively explored. My colleague Albert Isola is both the Minister for Town Planning and the Minister for ITLD. He will provide more details tomorrow.

CONSTRUCTION UPDATE

Construction is linked to planning, Dr Garcia added. So a brief update now on the industry.

Construction is now allowed on self-contained sites as from last week. This is subject to a permit from the Chief Technical Officer.

The permit sets out the conditions. There were only 16 active sites on 2 May. That number went up to 83 by 12 May. 38 formal application have been declined. And a further 41 are being assessed. Minor works are still not possible until UNLOCK Phase 2 is declared in force.

AVIATION ISSUES – UK QUARANTINE

He went on: "I want to say a few words on the UK’s own plans to quarantine air passenger arrivals. A series of exemptions have been announced.

The exemptions will be kept under review.

And it is expected that further details and guidance will be published.

The airlines are against the measure. As is the aviation industry in general. And the tourism world as well.

It is relevant to recall that BA now has four flights into Heathrow from Gibraltar.

The new schedule started on Wednesday. There were also flights on Friday, Sunday and Monday.

In that time 271 passengers arrived in Gibraltar (average of 68 a flight). And 349 passengers departed (average of 87 a flight).

The numbers flying into the UK are far from huge. This will strengthen our case. The Chief Minister has already raised the issue with London.

And we will continue to pursue the matter.

ENTERING GIBRALTAR

This week,12 BA passengers were refused entry into Gibraltar. They had intended to cross into Spain. But did not have the correct documentation.

In a separate incident,19 passengers were denied boarding at Heathrow. The context was a possible flight diversion.

In such cases, those without documentation to transit Spain are turned away. However, other passengers were wrongly denied boarding.

In the end, they were allowed to fly the next day.

BA flight operations have moved from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5. We are told that the staff there had not been briefed fully.

14-05-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR