The GSD has said that the ruling of the European court of Justice that the UK has failed to fulfill its EU obligations to ensure wastewater is properly treated in Gibraltar is a “disappointment on many levels”.

A statement continued: “The Government has had nearly six years to deliver on this obligation, an obligation that it had committed to in its 2011 manifesto and a commitment that is key to eliminating the worst possible blight on Gibraltar's environmental record.

“Four years worth of Parliamentary questions on this issue have failed to draw any coherent answers from Government. As long ago as January 2014 the Minister for the Environment was saying that the plans for the sewage treatment plant were proceeding swiftly. It took until December of the same year to establish that meetings had taken place between the joint venture company, Northumbrian Water and Modern Water and that construction would be complete by the end of 2016. By February 2017, with many further questions over the intervening period, the Minister was saying that a contract was not yet going to be awarded though he refused to specify why, only now and through the press do we discover that at least one of the complications is financial.”

Trevor Hammond, GSD Environment spokesman said: "This ruling by the European Court should really make no difference, it is shameful that after nearly six years in office the Government have not even been able to award a contract for the construction of a sewage treatment plant, let alone actually build one. Questions in Parliament have drawn inconclusive answers as to the reasons for the delay, it seems now that at least one of the reasons is financial, the Government were not forthcoming with this answer when asked as recently as February. There remains a democratic deficit in Gibraltar and this whole affair leaves a bad smell, particularly at Europa Point."

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