Gibraltar’s representation at the Labour Party Conference continued yesterday evening with the Gibraltar Reception hosted by the Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and featuring a keynote speech by the UK Minister for Europe and the Overseas Territories Stephen Doughty MP.
Following a security patrol in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters, HMS RAMSEY arrived at the Naval Base this morning. She is returning to the UK after some 3 years as one of the four Royal Navy minehunters currently working in the Gulf. Her present crew has been with her for 8 months and the ship has already sailed some 6000 miles on her journey home.
Students received their GCSE results this morning. The overall pass rate (A*-C) this year for local students was 63% which is slightly down from last year. Although Westside school maintained its 2013 result at 68%, Bayside has seen a fall to 58%, down 10% from last year. The Government has said it is “disappointed” with the fall in Bayside's pass rate.
This morning tailbacks of vehicles queuing to enter Spain through the frontier reached a peak of 5 hours. The queue began to form at around 8am, with tailbacks reaching Devil’s Tower Road by 8:30 am, resulting in the introduction of the third lane.
GONHS has said that it is satisfied with the effort made to relocate over 70 Mediterranean Ribbed Limpets (Patella ferruginea). The society says that the the way in which the move was conducted “employed the safest solution” with which to translocate this “very rare and endangered species.”