12 August
Karmenu Vella, EU Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries has replied to a written question dated 4th of June 2015 submitted by Spanish MEP Jordi Sebastiŕ i Talavera on Gibraltar's plans to build a marina breakwater on the east side of the Rock.
This is the answer given by Mr Vella:
Article 7 of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive foresees a transboundary environmental impact assessment procedure. The duty to inform an affected Member State of a project arises either where a Member State is aware that a project is likely to have significant effects on the environment in another Member State or where a Member State likely to be significantly affected so requests.
The Commission does not have information related to the Eastside Marina Breakwater Project or which procedural steps have been carried out in this case.
Article 7 does not foresee a role for the Commission in this consultation process.
12-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
College Lane- Fifty Steps of Grey
August 12, 2015
Dear Sir,
Take fifty steps South from either end of the Piazza in the centre of Main Street and you will reach College Lane at either the Main Street or Line Wall Road Junction. Whichever end you choose if you now take fifty steps down College Lane you will arrive, more or less, in the centre of the Lane.
As you walk and count take the time to look around, up and down, and admire what any visitor would see.
In the 2009 Government Old Town Development plan Policy OTR3-Enviromental Improvement states the following: THE DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING COMMISSION SHALL ENCOURAGE THE PREPARATION AND IMPLEMENTATION FOR SHARED PAVED SURFACES LANDSCAPING AND STREET FURNITURE FOR THE FOLLOWING STREETS:
A) BOMB HOUSE LANE;
B) KING STREET;
C) COLLEGE LANE; AND
D) TURNBULLS LANE
With regard to COLLEGE LANE there are more than twelve businesses operating from this small but busy lane. Many tourists pass through after arriving in the centre of town via the bus service or coach park and it is a very popular cut through from LINE WALL ROAD for local people and residents.
As anyone who has passed through or looked at the photos will see, the whole of the Lane is like something you may find in a third World city. The pavement is full of re-filled holes with rusty raised and dangerous manhole covers .The walls of many of the buildings are in a bad state of repair with an array of old water and drain pipes that remind one of spaghetti junction . There are many area of the pavement that are of different levels with trips awaiting the unsuspecting pedestrian. There are three sad looking streetlights with unsupported live cables hanging freely down the wall to uncovered rusty connection boxes rather than attractive street light as were shown in a painting in the John Macintosh Hall of COLLEGE LANE IN 1881. Things have not progressed much since then! The old Amar's bakery building is in a very bad state of repair and rendering from the side wall often falls into the Lane. Nobody seems to take responsibility either for the danger caused or the general look of the building . I assume the Town Planning authority has powers to make the current building owners ( I understand this is now an Irish bank) carry out repairs and decorations, as well as ensuring that the dilapidated wooden shutters are safe.
If one can close his or her eyes to the general state of the Lane they will not be able to avoid the sewer smell when the wind is blowing along College Lane. Complaints have been made to the environmental health department for more than 20 years and now even the sewer rats have pegs on their nose when climbing out of the holes in the pavement!
Is there any one in authority able to help rectify and improve this small but historic lane right in the centre of our Gibraltar? Does anyone in authority care?
Douglas Mottershead
-on behalf of the businesses and residents of COLLEGE LANE and the people of GIBRALTAR.
12-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
Equality
August 12, 2015
Dear Sir,
Further to a letter (Panorama 7th August) by Francis Gonzalez on the matter of same-sex equality.
Firstly I take issue with his referring to the Equality Rights Group as a 'homosexual group' this appears to say rather more about him than it does about the group in question. As I understand it the ERG represent equality on a number of issues, the current one happening to be the matter of equality in marriage. Do I detect a religious undertone here?
A manifesto commitment on the issue of equality will allow citizens to exercise a democratic vote should they wish to participate, there is no danger of 'totalitarianism' as Mr Gonzalez suggests, only when religions had the whip hand in Europe was there true totalitarianism in the form of the inquisition (even the fascist powers in the 30's and 40's were rooted in Catholicism)
The world is moving fully into genuine equality with 20 countries already granting same sex marriage to its citizens, including Spain, Portugal, the US and the UK. Let's move with history rather than become a victim of it.
Equality isn't a referendum issue, that's why it's called equality.
Terence Mustoe
12-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
He needs that extra mile to become an international star
August 12, 2015 | By J C Culatto
THE CULTURE COLUMN
Jonathan Lutwyche will give one final performance at National Day before jetting off to a year in a prestigious New York school of dance the very next day.
Panorama caught up with the teen prodigy, whose success at Britain's Got Talent saw him get tipped for international success at the highest level and all at the tender age of just 15-years-old, asking him what he feels he has accomplished.
"I get so many messages on social media saying that because of me young people, and in particular boys, want to start dancing," said Lutwyche. "It's shown people not only that boys can dance, something which when I was younger was frowned upon, but that even at my age, we can be some of the best in the world.
"It demonstrates that girls can play football and boys can dance, especially when big tough construction workers stop me to tell me that I did so well. I hope I have challenged people's stereotypes of boys in dancing but not only that, shown that I still fall because at the end of the day I'm only human."
Emotion
Lutwyche took us back to that tension before the semi-finals, when he was training long and hard for his semi-final appearance at the UK-wide talent show.
"I had the idea of the wall and the shadow but I decided to change the song I had chosen, 'Impossible' by James Arthur, three weeks before the show was due to be aired," he said.
"I had to send videos to choreographer Brian Friedman before visiting him in England where we agreed to keep a lot of the photography adding more flips and other effects.
"For me I knew it had to be something that was better than my audition because otherwise it would not wow the audience and show them I had improved since then."
He researched new tricks on the internet and started practising them, while at the same time extending his turns while still ensuring he could tell a story they could understand.
"The first TV performance before the judges was a sadder, more emotionally powerful dance while the second one was more of a statement so it had to be even more dramatic," said the Danza Academy star. "For me when I do solos they are always very sad, while duets or group pieces are far more lively but either way I aim to make the audience feel it and that is what makes me happy."
The intense preparation and stress Lutwyche went through seemed to strangely dissipate before the live round itself, as he felt he had tried his hardest and was the readiest he could be for the show.
"As soon as it finished everyone stood up and I had such an amazing feeling I couldn't stop smiling, which must have looked so silly but I was so happy," said Lutwyche of the gawping faces followed by uproarious applause. "Even though there was one turn which I fell out of not as well as I would have liked, something I put down to nerves, on the whole I was just really happy with the public and panel response."
Although our golden boy missed out on the final by a mere 0.5% of the vote, mainly due to the Gibraltarian being excluded from it, he considered it "the experience of a lifetime" which pushed him into the public eye so much he cannot even go down the street in England without being stopped.
Career
Now as he looks forward to a year studying dance at New York's … he told Panorama he wants to be seen as a dancer who demonstrated that "if you don't show emotion it is just movement and not dance".
He said he will clearly miss his mother on this new challenge which could eventually blossom into a career: "It is going to be hard because even though she will be with me in the beginning seeing her go will be really sad although there are some people I know from last year's summer school so I won't be alone."
Lutwyche will attend the world-renowned Joffrey School of Ballet in New York, where he has been awarded a half-scholarship for this first year, leading to further study and even employment if he feels comfortable.
"At first I didn't like it because of how fast the choreography was but then I realised I just had to learn the new skills and that made me really love it," he said. "In the next five years I want to see myself in a proper dance company and travel as much as possible. A lot of people say that it is really hard to do, but if you want to do it, all you can do is try it out."
Judging by how far he has gone already, no-one would it put it past him that he should go that extra mile and become an international star.
12-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
Nothing can bring us down or defeat us
August 12, 2015 | By Carmen Gomez
Continued from yesterday
This weekend, they showed all and sundry on Spanish TV, how a very macho man armed with a rifle, shot a defenseless bull in front of the villagers, who in their hundreds watched and clapped their hands. A bull that had been previously tortured by macho Spaniards who, naturally out of reach of the animal, shot darts into his body, darts which had little flags on the ends, thus further making visible their actions and the animals pain; just as one looks upon a dish of tapitas which instead of being on a dish, were presented on the back of this hurting and confused animal. But here's the crux of the matter.
Because they are now in the eye of Europe, this practice has naturally been made illegal with a fine of 30,000Euros. They are aware of this, but does this stop them from doing it? No! Because they, collectively, or the municipality, will happily pay the fine. How about that! After all, they have the wonderful example of their king Juan Carlos who pays to kill elephants! They are not about to change their ways come hell or high water! So when you allow such people to try to ruin your much needed trade and get away with it, or trespass into your waters with not so much as a how do you do followed by a warning, or a complaint being lodged, YOU ARE ASKING FOR TROUBLE.
We have lived through so much, and battled with so little against such giants, that nothing can defeat us or bring us down. We have always survived the onslaught, whether it was the closure of the frontier by Spain back in 1969; the closure of our dockyard in 1983; the removal of the frontier guard by the UK in 1986; the British Army withdrawal in 1991. The list is endless really when we then introduce the many agreements presented and reached by the UK with Spain, which have not made life easy for us. Yet this trend has never undermined our morale. BUT WE NEED THIS BULLYING FROM SPAIN TO STOP! We need the English Bulldog to take this bone away from the Spaniards, this bone they will not let go of, before it chews it to a pulp and defend our homeland as it deserves, as Gibraltar, in its day, helped Churchill to defend Britain and the free world.
As I write this, I have witnessed the sorry spectacle of Sky News portraying what I thought at first as our plight, which sadly turned into a jumbled up turn of events, with some film footage showing the Guardia Civil doing their job by speeding after contraband merchants and an, "oh dear me" and "when are they going to sort things out between them" feel about it all. The ill at ease commentator even found our Chief Minister's name a mouthful, when they have a very old established society which goes by his name and which they well know how to pronounce! The commentary on the headlines and stories of interest in the newspapers between the invited journalists and the newscaster came and went with no further mention about our very difficult situation. Obviously, we carry no interest with the English public as far as they are concerned. Whilst on their main TV Channel, Spain clearly stated that the Guardia civil were in Spanish waters!
Perhaps what we ought to do is fix a date, take all our boats out on to the bay as we did so majestically during the Queens celebrations, carrying banners with the words "THESE ARE OUR WATERS" make sure that there are TV people and newspaper people to film and photograph it all, And then invade the news in a massive wave so that maybe the message will get through!
12-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
Will Eva get the sack?
August 12, 2015
Chelsea's medic Eva Carneiro is again in the news, with controversy raging after manager Jose Mourinho blamed her for a bad result in Chelsea's first match of the new season. There were already reports that the Gibraltar-born glamour doc might face the sack, but she is quite popular at Chelsea so Mourinho might have to play it cool - but that is not his style.
"Eva Carneiro has been axed from Chelsea's bench by Jose Mourinho" said the Telegraph, adding that she is unlikely to be on the bench this coming weekend.
Said the paper: "It is understood that while Carneiro will remain Chelsea's first-team doctor, she will not attend training sessions, games or enter the hotel. As things stand, she is not expected to be on the bench for Sunday's trip to Manchester City."
It remains to be seen whether she will accept her new lower-profile role long term, although she is not the only member of Mourinho's staff to have their working arrangements changed.
Mourinho suggested that club doctor Carneiro did not "understand the game" after she attempted to treat Eden Hazard in stoppage time of Chelsea's draw against Swansea.
In her Facebook post, Carneiro responded by writing: "I would like to thank the general public for their overwhelming support. Really very much appreciated."
Following the opening-day draw against Swansea, Mourinho said: "I wasn't happy with my medical staff because even if you are a medical if you go to the pitch to assist a player, then you must be sure that a player has a serious problem. I was sure that Eden didn't have a serious problem. He had a knock and was very tired.
"My medical department left me with eight fit outfield players in a counter attack after a set piece and we were worried we didn't have enough players left."
She was promoted to first team doctor in 2011 - but has been the subject of sexual abuse from the fans of some clubs, making the news.
Eva Carneiro has been thrust into the media limelight once again following an extraordinary row with Jose Mourinho at the weekend, reports the Daily Mirror.
Carneiro was branded "naive" by the Chelsea boss after she sprinted onto the pitch to treat Eden Hazard during the game against Swansea.
Born in Gibraltar in 1973, she worked for the Chelsea reserves and did so well that she was promoted to first team doctor after a couple of years.
She had studied medicine and went on to obtain her MSc.
After the clash with Mourinho all eyes are now on Eva. Will she leave Chelsea for one reason or another? Everyone knows that Mourinho is a tough guy who will not allow anyone to interfere with his team's chances.
Eva is a popular girl. If she leaves Chelsea there will no doubt be offers from other top clubs. For the moment it is a question of 'wait and see', but the rumour mill is already working at a fast pace.
And Gibraltar is keeping a close look on developments.
12-08-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
