Westside reclamation to cost £59m

The Gibraltar Government will fund the £59m Westside reclamation project but has not yet established the cost of the affordable housing development planned for the reclaimed land, Parliament was told on Friday. 

The Minister for Health, Care and Business, Gemma Arias-Vasquez, said the reclamation figure included demolition of the extension jetty and other related items. 

Responding to questions from GSD MP Damon Bossino, she confirmed that the Government would undertake and fund both the reclamation and the subsequent housing development. 

Mrs Arias-Vasquez said works had physically commenced on September 21, with the main contractors beginning their site setup at the northern corner of the park. 

Mr Bossino pressed her to distinguish between mobilisation work and the start of reclamation itself, asking when residents would see dredging equipment or sand being deposited. 

Mrs Arias-Vasquez said mobilisation was an important phase of any construction project, involving arrangements such as establishing the site office and preparing methods for handling materials. 

She said demolition of the extension jetty had also begun, although this was a separate contract from the main reclamation. 

But she could not provide a date for sand to start being deposited, saying she did not have the phased programme available but would provide it if given notice of that specific question. 

Mr Bossino disagreed that his original question was insufficiently specific, arguing that asking when reclamation works would begin encompassed that information. 

He said the public remained “none the wiser” about when reclamation proper would start. 

Mrs Arias-Vasquez maintained that works had already begun through mobilisation and highlighted the housing planned for the site, adding the project would deliver more than 2,000 homes for future generations of Gibraltarians.