The commission held their monthly meeting yesterday, it was there where the Architects delivered their current plans for the housing estate which was originally announced by the Government on the 31st of May 2019.
Applications for the new apartments are available as from today and the construction, if everything goes smoothly, is expected to start at the beginning of next year. The estate will take 2 to 3 years to complete.
The contemporary style estate will be built on the site of an old electricity generating station, which is to be demolished later this year. There will be a dedicated entrance on Europort Road for Bob Peliza Mews, and the architects have said that each apartment will have their own parking spaces.
It was unsure whether the roof of the buildings will have solar panels as it wasn’t shown in the concept photos, however the Minister for Education, Heritage, Environment & Climate Change Dr J Cortes had said, “This is one of the things that should be incorporated and if I’m still Minister when this gets constructed, then I will take that roof and put some solar panels on.”
Mrs J Howitt from the Environmental Safety Group said, “It’s a climate change emergency at the moment, we cannot build buildings without there being a source of renewable energy.”
She also questioned the Architects why they didn’t include the industrial port in the photos advertising the estate.
“What I find incredible is that you are portraying the development to be next to a marina, a sailing yacht and people running along the seafront, and this is not possible I’m afraid.”
The water desalination plant next to GASA was also mentioned, with concerns that that will cause too much noise for the residents that will be living just metres away from it in the new apartments.
Will the noise from the industrial port be too much for those who will be living in these new buildings? Will the water desalination plant be moved or will it stay where it is at the moment? We will just have to wait and see.
09-07-19 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR