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.
The Royal Navy’s only ocean survey vessel, the HMS Scott will be stopping in at Gibraltar yesterday afternoon, in order to carry out a boat transfer. HMS Scott has been specially designed to carry the modern High Resolution Multi Beam Sonar System.
The swathe echo sounder is capable of collecting depth information over a strip of the seabed several kilometres wide and gives her the capability of surveying 150km2 of ocean floor every hour. On arrival and exit HMS Scott will conduct a maritime security patrol.
This afternoon Minister with responsibility for the Port, Neil Costa was presented with a plaque certifying the Port of Gibraltar as a Green Award compliant port.
The scheme, a global, independent, non-for-profit quality assurance organisation follows an explicit set of rules that include quality, safety and environmental protection; they also focus on the human element of ships. As part of the scheme, the port will award sustainable ships certified by the Green Award with a 5% reduction in tonnage dues as from the 1st April.
The Ministry of Culture has announced that this year’s May Day festivities will be being organised by the Gibraltar Trades Council.
The Ministry will be collaborating with the Unions and will provide assistance to ensure the smooth running of all events. The event this year will once again be held at Casemates Square and will include an all day event with a Fun Day for kids and live performances.
Following local reports claiming that Barclays Bank is set to carry out a review of their Gibraltar branch, the Government has said that they were briefed yesterday on the circumstances behind the review of the business in Gibraltar and across the European operations of the Bank, as announced in the conclusions of its Strategic Review on the 12th February.