John Culatto
A PLAN to improve cycling and walking paths around Europort got the green light from Gibraltar’s planning commission recently.
The project – part of the Gibraltar Active Travel Strategy – will make Europort Avenue, Europort Road and Euro City Passage a one-way traffic flow system.
It includes landscaped gardens and a two-way bicycle lane.
At the same time, it will create pick-up and drop-off zones for the new schools in the area.
The government said it will take the Development and Planning Commission’s comments into account when it puts forward the final plans.
It is based on the UK’s Living Streets project that aims to plant trees for shade in a pleasing landscape that helps people walk or cycle to school safely.
The plans will link to quieter streets where there is no space for cycle paths.
“We have worked hard together with the Ministries of Education, Environment, Sport and Leisure and Housing to be able to deliver a vision for a better, healthier, greener, and child-friendly future for Gibraltar,” Minister for Transport Paul Balban said.
“It is hugely gratifying to see this scheme approved unanimously by the DPC as a shared aspiration for future generations.”
The Minister for Education and the Environment, John Cortes, said it would ‘provide the ideal environment for the three new schools in the area’.
“I am certain that it will be well received and will set a standard to be replicated in other parts of Gibraltar,” Cortes predicted.
Minister for Housing Steven Linares said that the nearby Chilton Court could go through a similar transformation.
It would ‘enhance the standard of living’, Linares said.
At Chilton Court, he explained that ‘less cars will travel in front of houses’, making it safer for children to go to school.
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