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Vol. 10 Issue 245
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April 9th - April 22nd 2025
Gibraltar grows
GO AHEAD: The Rock is set to expand with new homes, office space and leisure facilities
THE long-awaited Eastside project has finally been given the green light, paving the way for one of the most significant developments on the Rock in recent years. Full planning permission was formally granted by Gibraltar’s Development and Planning Commission (DPC) after members were invited to view the final positioning of a major coastal breakwater, part of the infrastructure’s sea defence plans. The approval is subject to a redesign of the revetment at the end of the sea wall to reduce its visual impact. The majority of DPC members confirmed they were satisfied with the southernmost extent of the breakwater. Led by TNG Real Estate (Eastside) Ltd, the first phase of the project includes the construction of a marina and coastal protection works. It follows the granting of outline planning permission for the wider masterplan in August 2022. The Eastside development is expected to deliver hundreds
of new homes, leisure facilities and green public spaces on reclaimed land east of the Rock. But the decision has not been without controversy. Continues on page 4
Can he swim with the sharks?
New Commissioner of Police has a big job on his hands
THE triumphant announcement of a new Commissioner of Police for Gibraltar after an exhaustive selection process has been darkened by the return of the McGrail inquiry this week (see below). Owain Ceri Richards will take the hot seat from the retiring Richard Ullger in July with a daunting in-tray of challenges to overcome. The decision to hire an outsider seems to have been met with approval from all sides – the Chief Minister has expressed a preference for hiring an external commissioner. The first non-Gibraltarian to run the post since 1997, he will arrive with 30 years of policing experience under his belt – including working with small communities in his native Wales and tackling street crime with the Metropolitan Police in London. But the Welshman will be following
a prickly path that saw both previous CoP Ian McGrail forced to retire early in 2020 and incumbent Ullger face allegations of impropriety – of which he was cleared. The ghost of McGrail and the end his career met at the hands of the notorious Operation Delhi will be hanging over Richards from the moment he takes the reins on July 1.
Naive
With the inquiry chair Sir Peter Openshaw donning his wig once more and a host of heavy-hitting barristers and KCs reassembling on the Rock to duke it out in the Garrison Library this week, it underlines how policing in Gibraltar is not always a matter of patrolling the streets. “Does his experience make him of the calibre required for policing a place
THE so-called McGrail inquiry is reconvening this week for three days to examine allegations of ‘a number of possible deletions’ of Whatsapp messages between core participants. The inquiry will consider whether messages were deleted between RGP officers, specifically former Commissioner Ian McGrail and ex Superintendent Paul Richards’ personal phones. Among the missing is the
By Walter Finch
like Gibraltar?” one senior figure on the Rock asked. “Is he going to look at what happened in the past? You need to look at the past because otherwise the same problems can happen again. “So the question is, is he going to grasp the nettle and look at what happened to the police in the last five years? “Maybe he's going to be naive and try to avoid trouble, which is fair enough. “But I think he should grasp the nettle.” One individual with knowledge of the recruitment process assured the Olive Press that Richards is well-equipped to ‘swim with Gibraltar’s sharks’ and has plenty of experience beyond street-level crime. Of five or six candidates who were under consideration, Richards was
Murky waters fateful message supposedly informing McGrail that Richards had arrived at Hassans offices on the morning of 12 May 2020 with the search warrant. Sir Peter Openshaw also decided to admit late evidence from Hassans on behalf of senior partner James Levy and lawyer Lewis Baglietto.
‘clearly the standout front runner from the start’. “He managed to navigate the Metropolitan police successfully, which has not been without its own problems,” the person said. “This is a highly successful officer who has experience of not just financial crime, but also cutting edge policing in cyber crime and economic fraud. “Richards will rely on his team who certainly have knowledge of the local landscape to navigate Gibraltar. “He has the skills and the temperament. He’s more than equipped to do the job.” The new police chief’s immediate challenges will extend far beyond eyeballing the pitfalls of his predecessors. The RGP workforce of roughly 250 officers has been decimated by almost 25% attrition since 2020, according to testimony from the McGrail inquiry last year.
Scandal
A combination of retirements – some early – and officers taking up positions in government – some through the McGrail-related ‘witness inducement’ scandal – have taken their toll. It was heard that 18 out of 22 officers who left took up government employment. This has led to the closure of the Drug Squad and the Community Policing Team, the resources being redirected to combating economic and cyber-enabled financial crime, as well as the Safeguarding team. Opinion Page 6
CREATIVE DIRECTOR OLIVE PRESS PROFILE GIBRALTAR’S mercurial new government media director would quite like to be playing the guitar or indulging his passion for cinema and documentaries. But instead, Anton Calderon, 43, will be leading the drive to bring the government press office out of the ‘analog world’ and into the brave new one unfolding before us. Already a garlanded documentary-filmmaker with his own production company, Calderon has been tasked with ‘crafting a voice for the government of Gibraltar to tell the stories we want to tell.’ “Some of the issues which we would consider to have quite a solid consensus about liberal democracy and the way Continues on page 4
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