Lewis Battery Project
(Former Pig & Poultry Farm)
The ESG notes with concern that the Lewis Battery Hotel application, inside the Nature Reserve, is once again active on the planning website and calling for objections to be filed before the deadline of the 16th September 2021. The ESG urges those concerned to file an objection with Town Planning as soon as possible.
Minutes of the discussion on this project, when the application first came to DPC, are published on the DPC website. Entry is dated the 29th October 2020 and states in detail what was said. The Deputy Town Planner and Department for the Environment advised firmly against this development outlining the various clauses within the Gibraltar Development Plan and ecological reasons as to why.
The ESG fully concurred with their advice believing we have sacred, remaining pockets of habitat in our Reserve, which must not only be preserved, but, in light of climate change, enhanced and expanded wherever possible.
This was the key point we raised at the DPC meeting, that, rather than build and develop a brown site of past human activity, in an otherwise rich, green and protected environment, that the correct action would be to re-landscape and reforest this site, especially given the habitat loss suffered recently with the Old Casino Site, expansion of the top station and other excavation works related to development in areas near or buffering our Reserve.
The ESG is firmly opposed to commercial development of this type in our Nature Reserve that will see increased disturbance to our wildlife and believes many in our community share these views.
