I was interested to read the recent
statement from the Glacis Estate Tenants Association voicing their view that
they welcome the proposed improvements to their estate but oppose the building
of an additional floor.
Shortly before the General Election last
December I sat in on a meeting where a group of women who are residents at
Constitution House on the Glacis Estate voiced their concerns and aired their
complaints. They brought with them photographs of the state of the blocks of
flats in which they live.
Their complaints included:
Children from a nearby school playing
truant and hiding out on the top floor of their high rise block of flats.
Fires being started deliberately in the
rubbish shoots.
Acts of vandalism in the lifts and public
areas.
The lack of smoke and fire alarms in
public spaces.
At least one person openly selling drugs
from one of the flats.
The poor maintenance and structural state
of some flats.
A general lack of policing and security.
The women made two comments on their
situation. The first was that as their estate and the Laguna opposite were the
first that visitors from Spain see when entering the Rock they were ridiculed
because of the perceived “poor state in which Gibraltarians live”. They are
second class citizens on their own Rock.
The second was that it was shameful that
their estate was so run down especially as it was opposite the luxury
developments on the harbour on the opposite side of the road. They seemed to suggest
it was shameful that the residents of the luxury harbour apartment developments
should have to suffer their poor estate alongside.
I made the point to them that their
situation was shameful wherever they lived: because everybody had the right to
live in dignity. Many of the residents of these estates live in shameful
conditions yet they are still clinging on to their dignity. Their situation, as
the GSLP Liberal government recognises, needs to be rapidly addressed.
Ask yourself would it be acceptable for
the luxury harbour developments to have school children playing truant on the
top floor? No it wouldn’t!
Would it be acceptable for vandals to set
fires in their rubbish shoots? No it wouldn’t!
Would it be acceptable for a drugs dealer
to openly operate from one of the luxury apartment? No it wouldn’t.
The answer would be “No it wouldn’t” to
any other such question you may set. The rationale may be that if you pay one
million pounds for a luxury apartment you are buying a better quality of life
than those on a government estate. I would argue that the million pounds buys
you a luxury apartment with a view over the harbour but the quality of life
should be the same wherever you live: be you rich, middle income or poor.
Due to the situation in these blocks of
flats and on these estates the residents are not only poorly housed but suffer
stress, low living conditions, live in fear of vandalism and violence with
pressures on their children from the truant and drugs culture. Google Glacis
and you will find the search topped by two drugs raids on the estate.
As the GSD government left office without
one single government housing scheme in progress or in the planning stage the
GSLP Liberal administration has had to start from scratch. This state of
affairs would have been understandable if the GSD was intent on pursuing a
scorched earth policy so the incoming government had to clear up the mess.
However given the election could have gone either way it means the GSD had made
absolutely no provision for future government housing or the need to reduce the
lengthy waiting list should it have been returned to power. This was bad
politics and showed sheer contempt for the needy in Gibraltarian society.
The urgent need has to be to carry out
major programmes at Glacis, Laguna and the Moorish Castle Estates not to just
reclad them to make them look better but to solve the major problems beneath
that cladding these communities of tenants have to live with. This is not a
housing problem but a cross ministry problem from education to policing. Out
must go the truants; out must go the drug dealers; the rubbish shoots have to
be secured; fire and smoke alarms have to be installed; vandalism has to be
eradicated and if the Royal Gibraltar Police does not have the manpower or the
inclination to make them secure then private security should be employed. It is
simply not acceptable to take the view that “these estates have social problems
because they are where poorer government housing tenants live: what else would
you expect?” What might be the norm for a British or Spanish inner city sink
estate should not be acceptable in the small community that is Gibraltar.
