Hammond’s ‘bizarre’ tweet draws Govt flak

The Government of Gibraltar has described a tweet by the GSD’s environment spokesman, Trevor Hammond, regarding the Med Steps closure this week as “bizarre”.

Med Steps was closed for safety checks after a rock fall but Mr hammond, according to the government, was implying it had been closed to prevent people from seeing the progress of new sporting facilities at Lathbury.

On Monday evening, Mr Hammond tweeted of the Lathbury site from Med Steps and said: “Strange coincidence that one of the best vantage points to see progress in Lathbury Stadium, Med Steps closed just before it’s due for completion.”

“This image taken [Sunday] morning from the Med Steps.”

In response to this, the Government said it would not want to deny people seeing the development of these “wonderful new facilities”, nor would it close off a popular walk like Mediterranean Steps for “dishonest reasons”.

In a statement to the press yesterday, a Government spokesman said the tweet was “unbelievable”, adding that Mr Hammond “clearly implied” the closure was to prevent progress in the works at Lathbury Stadium being visible to the public.

The statement read: “The suggestion seems to be that, for some reason, Government wanted to hide progress on this sporting facility.”

“It is hard to understand this bizarre allegation, when the site is visible from other vantage points on the Upper Rock.”

“This clearly shows the disingenuous nature of the tweet, and confirms what we have seen of late – the Opposition moving firmly into the realms of ‘Fake News’ and ‘Alternative Facts’.”

“What makes it worse is that Mr Hammond is questioning an action taken by Government on grounds of public safety,” the spokesman added.

“This calls into question Mr Hammond’s sincerity and clearly shows that his public statements simply cannot be trusted.”

“Mr Hammond’s Tweet was out of turn and most irresponsible.”

“In his tweet Mr Hammond shows a photograph of the new stadium partly concealed in levanter fog.”

“Maybe he will now tweet to say that this is another of the Government’s attempts at concealing the works.”