Drivers Confirm Ignoring Traffic Directions By Spanish Workers!

However, the main issue or point in our Tuesday’s report focused on the daily and shameful sight of the growing army of amateur traffic officers, dressed up as Spanish workers holding shabbily make-shift traffic wands and wearing florescent visibility vest displaying Spanish company logo’s or name. With others allowed to ridiculously and shamefully wear hi-vis vest with the coat of arms of the neighbouring municipalities. This shabby looking lot on daily basis literally take on official traffic control duties by the many development sites situated round the Rock!

Positive Public Response to Panorama Report

Generally there has been a positive and supportive response to our report from the public, especially on social media. Although there were one or two responses, saying the news was old. I disagree, the news is not old, it is not only current, but it is being allowed to continue which cannot make the news old. As we also highlighted in the report there is a clear and dangerous road safety aspect that has now surfaced in public opinion because the public are ignoring traffic directions by these sites!

On a personal level, certain people belonging to one of the major political parties approached me, two people in fact, I would say they were senior political party members who were not happy and did not agree with our report. As I understand the main issue for them was the way this newspaper explained matters. However, I believe the case is, that the Panorama report cast some negative shadows in the manner the Gibraltar traffic problem is being handled.

These so-called one-dimensional, partisan thinking party members, were right, the report did reflect a level of poor traffic management, but by all the authorities involved in keeping local roads safe and as fluid as possible. But unlike these people, who are sadly caught and programmed to act, think, speak and live to a political party line. They cannot possible expect people like me to do or be the same, when my job is to highlight and report on these issues of huge public interest and to create debate and if possible, make a difference in getting things right. This if it happens, will be obvious, as we will all witness it together!!!

Heighten Road Safety Concerns

One important and fundamental issue is now clear, is that ‘Road Safety’, equally highlighted in our report, has now become an issue of concern during the online debate and other related comments elsewhere.

Many members of the public daily, not only those who have come online to confirm they completely ignore the traffic directions given by illegal Spanish (workmen) acting as amateur traffic officers. Something, which is witnessed every single day, people quite rightly are confirming this in frustrated posts on social media.

Gibraltar has a habit of doing things in the reverse; instead of promoting road safety we do the opposite and allow any Tom, Dick and Spanish Harry to take control by directing local road users, mostly in the wrong direction. The huge risk is easy, make a calculated mistake allowing pedestrians, young kids to cross the road outside a busy building development site with large lorries exiting and entering every few minutes, this apart form the normal traffic. These are ordinary Spanish workmen, who can probably hardly read, but qualified enough to give so-called traffic direction, totally untrained, with no knowledge of the local highway code and zero knowledge of traffic flows as he/she are use to the Spanish system:

IT’S BLOODY CRAZY AND DANGEROUS AND MUST STOP!

If road safety has really been taken seriously when the development planning people had sat down to discuss every aspect of the application, they should have insisted that the developer be made to understand be responsible, that police officers are the official body who legally control traffic and ensures road safety on Gibraltar roads and not Manolito or Pacito the labourers who live across the border in a Calle San Jose and know ‘Fxxk All’ about directing traffic!

What the planning commission people should always guarantee, is that included in the planning permission stage, the developer has a proviso that it must agree with the police a traffic safety plan for that site. ONE, that includes police officers or any or trained body who would take control of traffic supervision outside the site, and where the extra cost of having police officers on the site is met by the developer:

The idea is not a novel one, as from experience I can inform readers, that as head of traffic during my Police career. I was quite often asked to bring down traffic officers at weekends, nights and on public holidays on overtime duty to escort and perform other traffic duties, where subsequently, the RGP would invoice the company concerned. Actually it was quite a common occurrence.

So why is this not being done now, is it the police, the developer, the planning commission or just bad planning with no thought on road safety and all road users!!!

26-04-19 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR