Seven years on, Gibraltar still waiting for new Development Plan

The Gibraltar Government said it has no definite date for the publication of Gibraltar’s new Development Plan, a year after a draft document was expected to be released for public consultation.

The Development Plan sets parameters and offers guidance for buildings in Gibraltar, but the current plan dates to 2009, a time when Gibraltar looked very different, particularly in areas such as Devil's Tower Road.

Plans of this type are complex documents and, while they are supposed to be refreshed every 10 years, delays are not unusual.

The 2009 plan, for example, came 18 years after the 1991 plan it replaced.

But the delays are frustrating not just for developers but also for those who sit on the Development and Planning Commission, which has repeatedly highlighted the need for an updated version suitable for Gibraltar's modern needs.

Since 2009, separate planning guidance has been issued for some areas, including Devil's Tower Road.
But the overarching Development Plan is now 17 years old.

The history of the new document yet to be made public is convoluted, complicated in large part by the Covid pandemic.

In 2019, the Government gave the green light for work to commence on a new Gibraltar Development Plan.

At that time, it said a tender for the plan would be published in the coming weeks, with the aim of setting out "a future vision for the coordination of development and planning".

But in 2021, the Government told the Chronicle it was considering pushing back its already-overdue plans, citing the need to rein in costs against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic.

By 2023, the tender process was finally underway.

The then minister with responsibility for Town Planning, Samantha Sacramento, said in her budget address that the process had closed on May 25 that year and that bids were being assessed.

In June 2024, the minister with responsibility for Town Planning, Gemma Arias-Vasquez, announced that the tender for the new Gibraltar Development Plan had been awarded to Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners Limited for £634,973.25.

By later that same year, work on the plan had commenced.

As well as the normal guidance, the new plan would comprise a design guide for the wider area of the Northern District – the area known as Devils Tower Road - and a Tall Building Guide for Gibraltar.

Over the following months, there was evidence-gathering and meetings with developers, NGOs, professional bodies and Government departments.

In her 2025 budget address, Mrs Arias-Vasquez said: “We are now working towards the publication of a Consultation Draft this autumn, followed by a two-month public consultation.”

“And let me say this clearly, as I have already said publicly before, the Development Plan is not a tick-box exercise.”

“It is an opportunity to shape the Gibraltar we want to see.”

She also told the house in that address: “If all goes to plan, we expect to adopt the final version of the new Development Plan by late summer next year [meaning 2026].”

And although the original tender and official references to the Development Plan have always envisaged a document covering a period of 10 to15 years, Ms Arias-Vasquez told Parliament at the time that the new plan "will define how Gibraltar develops over the next 25 years.”

The minister offered a further update in her 2026 budget address in June.

“Throughout the last year the Department has been working closely with its planning consultants, Lichfields, on the drafting of the new Gibraltar Development Plan," she said at the time.

“It is true that this work has taken longer than expected. But I am pleased to say that most of the workstreams are progressing.”

“I hope to be able shortly to announce the publication of a Consultation Draft of the Plan.”

“The draft Plan will be open to public consultation for a period of two months.”

Fast forward to September, however, and the draft has not yet been published or the consultation opened, and there is no clear indication as to when that might happen.

“There is no definite date yet for the publication of the draft Plan," a Government spokesperson told the Chronicle.

"We are, however, hopeful it will be soon."

The delays have been repeatedly highlighted by the Opposition, particularly against the background of construction activity in Gibraltar.

GSD MP Damon Bossino told this newspaper that it was “quite alarming” that there was now a seven-year delay on the publication of the new Development Plan “when so much has gone on and continues to go on relentlessly in terms of construction and development generally”.

“Many complain about lack of planning and foresight, with people feeling as if they are on a constant construction site surrounded by concrete and incessant noise,” he stated.

He said the GSD was committed to ensuring Gibraltar had a long-term strategic plan setting out "a generational view of our needs and objectives" which would have to policies and goals on urban planning.

“This is important,” Mr Bossino added.