Chamber urges action to clean up Gibraltar’s streets

Gibraltar’s streets and tourist attractions are dirty and should be maintained to a higher level of cleanliness, the Chamber of Commerce said yesterday as it warned of a potential knock-on impact on public health and tourism.

Many of the streets and pavements “appear not to have not been cleaned for months”, the Chamber said, calling on the Gibraltar Government to tighten standards.

“The Chamber is concerned that quite apart from being an unsightly health hazard for residents and visitors alike, but that it also leaves a very poor impression among visitors to Gibraltar, be they tourists, entrepreneurs, professionals or otherwise,” it said in a statement.

The Chamber also complained that the government had failed to fulfil past commitments to provide additional bin stores, adding that its members paid “significant rates” and that the government had to duty to act in this regard for the benefit of the community as a whole.

“The perennial difficulties and issues associated with waste disposal as experienced by the Chamber’s members, the Main Street traders in particular, are nothing new,” the Chamber said.

“Despite a number of efforts at fine tuning the process of waste disposal over the years, it is clear that the current solution is simply not fit for purpose.”

“The Chamber acknowledges and understands the frustrations and complaints made by the general public in respect of this and is keen to work with Government to find a modern, flexible and effective solution to this particular problem.”

“Whilst the Chamber is aware that a new public area cleaning contract is and has been due to be awarded for several months now, it is simply unacceptable that the level of cleanliness has been allowed to fall to the today’s levels by the current contractor.”

“The Chamber is concerned that with the summer now upon us, the already very poor state of cleanliness of our streets and a potentially difficult transition from current to new contractors expected in the coming months, that we will see a marked deterioration to an even lower level of cleanliness with all the public health, quality of life and negative reputational consequences that would engender.”

“The Chamber therefore calls on government to renew, once more, its determination to ensure the current contractor’s delivery of minimum levels of cleanliness in public areas and hopes that the appointment of a new contractor will see this frankly worrying state of affairs promptly corrected in a permanent fashion.”

Pic by Gareth Fuller/PA Wire