Charlie Smith
GIBRALTAR will experience six-hour border delays, a fall in tourist numbers and disruption to emergency services under a no-deal Brexit, the Government has said.
The shocking revelations are part of the Reasonable Worst Case Scenario (RWCS) predicted if the UK leaves the EU without a deal on October 31.
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The details were published in the Government’s Brexit Advice Booklet, released today to coincide with the Rock’s new Brexit Information Office.
Launched by Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Garcia as part of the Government’s information campaign, the 64-page document sets out Gibraltar’s post-Brexit future.
One of the guide’s most striking predictions is that the daily movement of people and goods across the Frontier would be ‘abnormally disruptive’.
Border checks under the RWCS, the guide says, will result in two-hour queues for private vehicles and pedestrians and six-hour waits for commercial vehicles.
This information confirms the forecasts already revealed in the Yellowhammer documents leaked to the Sunday Times.
However the Government’s new guide also predicts that the Rock’s tourism numbers are ‘likely to fall’ if Gibraltar and the UK crash out of the EU without a deal on Halloween.
The document also says that there will be ‘significant traffic congestion problems across most of Gibraltar’s northern road network’, which will cause problems for the Rock’s supply chain and emergency services.
Ahead of these nightmare scenarios the guide states: “It should be noted that these are planning assumptions the Government of Gibraltar has made and it is therefore not necessarily the case that the assumptions listed below will materialise.”
There are nine risk assessments and planning assumptions set out for businesses and individuals in total.
These are: Land Border Checks, Border Inspection Posts (BIPs), Congestion, Frontier Workers, Travel across the border, EU Contingency Measures, Resilience, Relocations and Waste.
Garcia, who heads the Brexit Strategic Group (BSG), described the guide as an ‘impressive document’ and said ‘the Government has tried to provide as much certainty as we can’.
“This reflects our 96% vote in favour of Remain. However, we have no choice but to prepare for every eventuality.”
The Government’s booklet is split into four chapters – Background Information, Getting Ready: Individuals and Families, Getting Ready: Businesses and Organisations and Unilateral Spanish Contingency Measures.
Hard copies are available from the Government’s Brexit Information Office, 323 Main Street.
The guide can also be downloaded HERE.
Deal or no deal, there will be six-hour border delays, a fall in tourist numbers and disruption to emergency services, of course.
The colony wont be part of the EU anymore, did you think that everything would remain the same?