Cortes announces working group for a ‘heritage management plan’

Government is to set up a Working Group to develop a Heritage Management Plan for Gibraltar. This was announced by the new Heritage Minister Dr John Cortes at the Gibraltar Heritage Trust annual general meeting on Thursday night. Dr Cortes will chair the group which will see the involvement of all stakeholders, including the Heritage Trust. He gave a guarantee to the Trust that he would give heritage the commitment which it deserves.

The AGM, saw Delilah Smith step down as chair and saw the re-election of trustees,Ian Balestrino, Dr Keith Farrell, and election of new trustees Charlie Lugaro and Francis Silva, to the board. A new chairperson will be elected by the board next week.

In his address Dr Cortes said protecting Gibraltar’s heritage protects the tangible elements that give body to its rich history.

“Protecting it ensures that our identity has a solid foundation and few things are as important as that.”

Looking beyond the implementation of the new heritage legislation which he said he would make a priority, he told the Trust Gibraltar needed a tool that would guide all through the day-to-day and which set out “our vision for heritage, objectives in the short- and medium-term and which measures our success in achieving these goals. In short, we need a Heritage Management Plan”.

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