City Hall Car Park Changes To All-Day Parking

July 15, 2015

City Hall car park will become all-day parking effective Monday [July 20], with the City saying they have “determined that City Hall Car Park is currently being used for all day parking by motorists who are generally not paying, and therefore has introduced an up-front all day parking fee upon entry.”

The City said, “Today most motorists who try to use the City Hall car park for its intended short term parking, of 3 hours or less, will find the car park generally full to capacity all day, with most users failing to follow car park regulations, or pay for its use.

“This means the customers of Hamilton’s retail shops, restaurants and other local businesses are unable to use this car park for short term parking.

“In addition, the City is losing a significant amount of revenue, which it simply cannot afford,” the City added.

City Hall Parking Lot Bermuda Generic

“The current absence of short term parking is due to a lack of enforcement, either by the City with clamping and the relevant City Parking Ordinance being invalidated by the Supreme Court in October 2014, or in spite of numerous requests, the traffic wardens who patrol our city streets will not enter the city’s car parks to enforce the same parking regulations.”

Corporation Secretary, Ed Benevides said: “It is our hope that this will be a temporary measure that can be withdrawn once we have traffic wardens patrolling the car parks or a comprehensive parking ordinance passed through the legislative process.

“It is unfortunate but the deliberate refusal of motorists to pay and or follow the rules and ensure short term parking, have forced this response to limit the loss in revenue. City Hall Car Park will be sign posted accordingly to alert motorists.”

“Given the current state of affairs there is little the Corporation can do to address the lack of short term parking. However, the Corporation can remedy the lack of payment for parking all day at the City Hall Car Park, and its potential impact on City services and employment,” the City added.

“Drivers can pay $15 per day [reduced from $17.50] and enter City Hall car park any time after 8am Monday to Saturday on a first come, first served basis. Payment can be made by cash, credit or debit cards.

“Once City Hall car park is full, attendants will leave one gate open for people to exit as they wish. The car park will be locked from midnight until 8am. The price for disabled parking will be $10 per day.

“Please note that parking at City Hall will cost drivers less than the regular all day parking fee in other car parks, although the most economical all-day parking for the city is still at Bull’s Head Car Park, at only $5 per day.

“The Corporation of Hamilton regrets having to take this course of action and hopes that this can be quickly resolved and parking within Hamilton can return to some semblance of normalcy.

“We apologize to the fee paying car park users for any inconvenience caused and hope the reduction in the all day fee at City Hall Car Park will offset any inconvenience.”

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Comments (80)

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  1. Loquatz says:

    This is harebrained.

  2. cole says:

    How about instigating parking for pregnant women and the elderly, along with the handicapped, so that they can get space to park nearer the shops?

    • Onion juice says:

      They gotta make up for the $18 million.

    • Codfish says:

      Persons with certified medical problems already have priority parking. Where have you been? On Pluto?

  3. Scorpio says:

    Don’t the traffic wardens patrol the car park, and ticket any non-paying park users? Just as a layman, it seems to me that routine spot checks of the park would minimize the non-paying crowd( I thought that happened now)? Or am I missing something?

    • Scorpio says:

      Actually never mind, reread the article and missed the bit about getting traffic wardens in place. Wasn’t aware that there were no/few wardens in place currently…. So with that said, wouldn’t that be a problem for the other city parking lots as well?

    • Malah says:

      The article states that the wardens do not patrol the car parks, only the streets.

    • Hope says:

      This was deemed illegal in the Courts recently, which is why everyone is parking illegally all day in the car parks without repurcussion.

      • payattention says:

        Actually that is not true. Clamping is illegal; not ticketing. They moved from tickleting to clamping because people were not paying their tickets and the courts were back logged. Six months after issuing a ticket it is null and void. They are still able to ticket.

        • Lala says:

          Then change the law to prevent licensing of cars with outstanding fines and tickets. Simple.

          • Codfish says:

            Won’t work. You need to convict someone before giving a penalty. Missed that point?

  4. Question says:

    so where does one go for short term (more than 1 hour, less than 3 hours) parking with City Hall becoming all day parking?

  5. Coolieh says:

    Why can’t government just fixed the problem (legislation).

    Am I correct, the legislative issue occurred last year (Oct 2014); and it’s still not fixed!

    This is absurd!

    Irresponsible!

  6. Shelley says:

    That is ridiculous City Hall should stay a short term car park! You are slowly making Hamilton less and less user friendly to shoppers.Along with the no parking along Reid Street from 8-10am this seems absurd in the current economic climate.

    • Lone Wolf says:

      You are so right Shelley. I have done all of my shopping online for a couple of years now. Reason #1 for that is because I can never find any parking spots anywhere so I gave up on shopping in town.

      I don’t use Bull’s Head because I am not about to do all that walking in the summer heat or the winter rain just to buy an item I can order for less money in the comfort of my own home.

      I gave up on shopping in St.Georges for the same lack of parking. The only place I can find parking is in Dockyard but that is useless for me because none of the shops in Dockyard have anything I want.

  7. Silence Do Good says:

    The corporation with all of their hairbrain schemes to gank the public with things like clamping cans solve the issue with other parking regimes as in other countries. Has anyone been to an airport parking lot? You get a ticket when you enter and when you leave you pay for your time to exit. All the money and fuss the corporation goes through with parking in their lots when simple gates at entry and exit could solve the problem. Park for an hour or for a week the cost is calculated to let you leave. Seems too simple for this lot.

    • sand says:

      That would be just a to simple and effective solution. Corporations and Governments don’t seem to understand those two concepts

    • Remember where you are... says:

      This is Bermuda, we don’t like change, or efficiency for that matter.

    • scorpio says:

      The problem with your idea is that it makes too much sense. So in other words, it won’t happen.

    • Codfish says:

      Please run for Mayor!!

  8. CountryGirl says:

    Ever since the dispute with Corp of Hamilton and the courts, about the clamping issue people haven’t been paying and nobody is ticketing so you have several people parking for free. This is the Corporations way of making sure that everybody is paying and there is nomore cheating. Sad that it will be closed at midnight though. Several patrons of nearby establishments such as Spring Gardens and more use the car park after midnight.

  9. Legalgal says:

    Have these idiots totally lost the plot?! The problem is the authorities not preventing offenders who park all day and don’t pay. (Not a question of clamping – that was always clearly illegal but fining and enforcing fines were and are not.)

    Parking lots on Frint Street are now also no go zones as all day no payers are abusing the system. And they are being permitted to.

    It’s the equivalent too saying, we can’t enforce the steppe limit so let’s just remove the speed limit and let people openly use the system.

    Where do shoppers park? It would be ok if we had out of town options as we could just shop at the out of town mall but we can’t.

    This level of incompetence or “reasoning” is ridiculous.

    And how easy it is for the Parleville holders to seize the land if the Hamilton Ciry Council is not going to ensure it produces income by enforcing. Or is that the plan, ensure their is a default on income so that the default entitles the council to hand overrated ownership of the land?

  10. CountryGirl says:

    Ever since the dispute with Corporation of Hamilton and the Courts about the clamping issue, there have been a lot of people parking for free. This is the Corporations way to make sure that everyone is paying. Sad that it is closing at midnight though because there are patrons of establishments such as Spring Gardens that use the car park after midnight.

  11. Hope says:

    This will just make the offenders go to the other car parks on Front Street and park there all day instead…meaning that anyone who wants to park for 1-3 hours can’t find a space there, and would then be forced to pay $15 a day to park at City Hall.

    Why can’t they just get the warden issue sorted out through the Courts already?!!

    • sick and tired says:

      Thank You, well said. If the wardens do not do their jobs, there are a lot of other people that would gladly do the work. They are being paid to do this and not doing it, so get rid of them. Where is your backbone COH?
      I come into town (which I despise), maybe 3 times a year. So now you are telling me, when I come into town for maybe a hour, I have to pay $15.00.

  12. sand says:

    It’s already hard enough to find parking!
    Buy Bermuda …?? Yah right!!
    Online shopping it is! Saving me not only the parking fee but not having to pay the ridiculous prices Hamilton stores charge.
    I can still by items online cheaper than in Bermuda and that’s with shipping and duty included.

    • Jack says:

      Once again the majority of bermuda has to suffer from thone who push the rules and think they are above everyone else. It has gotten to the point now that if so one wants to attend a funeral at st. Teresa’s or any church within the vicinity of paid parking you have to pay. Instead of increasing the prices on already existing parking lots to produce the funds needed, how about making more parking lots for Bermuda’s vehicles so there would be less of a fight for a park and more income to the corporation

  13. Clarke L Jones says:

    The best solution to this is for them to close the entrances on Victoria Street and have one entrance from the West of City Hall and an exit on Wesley Street where people have to pay when they leave.To do this you would have to make Wesley street a two way so that those who want to go East can turn North.

  14. blow in says:

    ONE CAR PARK won’t PAY FOR THE OTHER ONE 18 MILLION hahaha

  15. Craig says:

    As traffic wardens refuse to service the City Hall parking lot, this will continue to be the case regardless of whether parking is 3 hours, one day or one month! The problem is entirely caused by warden enforcement and not the length of the time limit. It will now become virtually impossible to find short term parking in Hamilton. This is a huge disservice to all shoppers.

    Why not install automated barriers which issue tickets on entry and require presentation of a paid ticket at exit for the barrier to open (tickets are paid/validated at ticket machines in the car park). As it is therefore impossible to exit without full payment it matters not whether the vehicle is parked for 1, 2, 3 or 7 hours in accordance with hours of operation. Manpower is not required as the system is fully automated. This proposal is simply ludicrous for all. There must be more equitable ways for the Corporation to help subsidise the huge interest on the $18 million debt that was inherited from the negligent Outerbridge administration. Quo fate ferunt, non carborundum illegitimus.

  16. Brightsparks says:

    So wait…the problem was that people parked all day for free and nobody else could park in the heart of hamilton…so they solved it by…making it an all day car park…so theres still no extended parking in the heart of hamilton? 6+ months later and the law hasn’t changed…clamps laying useless…other car parks full all day for free…the level of brilliance up there… the emporer has new clothes lol

  17. Bermy girl says:

    Gee. Thanks COH for punishing us law abiding citizens for the sins of a few!
    Absolutely ridiculous!!

  18. jt says:

    $30 million debt…

  19. lifetime says:

    This is not rocket science people. Use a ticket system to make it work. Put up a little stop gate that goes up and down to allow people to enter/exit. When you enter you take a ticket. Ticket records the date and time. On exit you pay in cash or credit card the time spent in the car park. Short term parkers you pay by the hour. The abuse would stop because you wouldnt be able to enter/exit without ticket nor paying. Problem solved.

  20. Loyal Parking Payer says:

    Wait wait wait…..

    What is going to make people pay the $15 if they’re already not paying the ~$5? Especially after this article trumpets the fact that the price increase is a result of not having the staff to watch the lot? How does this change anything? Why hurt the paying short-term customers like this?!

    Isn’t the Cavendish lot all day AND/OR hourly? Will this be set up similarly? At least that would be slightly more reasonable to still give the option to those who need it!

  21. Dumb Idea says:

    Oh well, there goes shopping in Hamilton. City Hall will be now use for people working in the city instead of their customers.

  22. Ed Case says:

    So they’re OK giving one of our car parks away completely to a foreigner, but they won’t let us park in the other one for an hour without fleecing us for a whole day’s charge?

  23. GATED CAR PARKS says:

    The rest of the world have gated car parks. receive ticket upon entry pay warden upon exit. longer you stay more you pay.
    $15 all day parking is a joke.
    San Diego city parking is $10 to $30 and hour. city is virtually traffic free shoppers use public transportation or car pool.
    may I suggest park and ride system for bulls head car park?

    • Tempus Fugit says:

      San Diego city parking is $10 to $20 for all day parking, not for an hour.

  24. Family Man says:

    I bet the City Hall Car Park will have no more than 5 cars on Monday.

    • Legalgal says:

      People need to boycott. But sadly the City can do what they want and the citizens have no choice.

  25. angry bermudian says:

    Perfect example just like in the states . government are jus behind the times take a ticket and move along how hard is that. And u can leave until you pay!!!!

  26. Oh dear! says:

    One had hoped that with the new Mayor of Hamilton sanity and good administration would return. In fact – more crazy stuff. Many shoppers will not shop in Hamilton, more Seniors will use the Bus services (free) and the losers will be the Corporation of Hamilton even more so than previously. Who would want to be in the Restaurant or Retail business in Hamilton from now on?

  27. caitlyn says:

    Obey the laws..

  28. scorpio says:

    If the issue is enforcing, how does changing to all day parking better the situation? Noone is in place to monitor whether someone is paying regardless of it being long or short term.

  29. Shopper says:

    Buy Bermuda! Well unless you can’t find parking….then buy Amazon, Talbots, JCP, the choices are endless. Ludicrous!

  30. Arts Lover says:

    What happens with those individuals who are attending Opening Nights for the Bermuda Society of Arts and National Art Gallery? – not to mention Bermuda Festival and other performances at City Hall in the evenings! Do they, too, have to pay $15??

  31. Infidelguy says:

    This is extremely laughable.

    Why do they believe that making City Hall car park all day is a reasonable solution? If, according to the Corporation, people are parking all day for free now, why would I go and pay $15 to park all day? Who came up with this idea? Forest Gump? Even he is not that stupid.

    LMAO!

    • Legalgal says:

      Because presumably they will collect the money as you enter (nice queue). Then close the entry when it is full and attendant leaves. Oddly if places become vacant they will remain so. With parking at a premium that is nuts. But you could always drive in via the exit right?!

      Whilst I would never condone vigilantism! Why not just invite the paying public to sort out the non- paying public. Went along one lane of cars today, after an unprecedented 30 min wait for a space, and over half the cars were freebies ambsing the system. Easy for members of the public to determine who is being abusive.

  32. Annabel says:

    This is appalling!!! There are few enough spaces in which to park as it is if you need to be in town for more than an hour. Who can afford $15 for a couple of hours of shopping or errands??!

  33. Smarty Pants says:

    This is crazy, I wonder who comes up with these foolish ideas and as always the general public has to suffer!!! “So some people are breaking the law so lets give them all day to break it”. I must be missing something.Please let good sense prevail.

  34. Rhonnie aka BlueFamiliar says:

    So basically, City Hall Car Park is going to be mostly empty, because the people who were parking free there are now going to park free at Par-la-Ville and No. 1 Shed parking.

    And people who might shop in town will have no chance of finding anywhere to park, unless they feel inclined to park all the way down at Bulls Head where the all day parkers should be parking.

    I’d like to applaud those Hamilton workers who were parking for free in the part time parking lots, and the Corporation of Hamilton, for coming together to work towards the further demise of shopping and doing business in Hamilton.

    I hope we don’t start hearing people who were employed in Hamilton loosing their jobs and complaining about it. Because they will have no one to blame but themselves.

    I thought we were done with the dumb COH decisions when Team Hamilton left.

    • caitlyn says:

      Across from HSBC people go out every three hours and move their cars….What happened to chalking the tires?

    • Legalgal says:

      Because presumably they will collect the money as you enter (nice queue). Then close the entry when it is full and attendant leaves. Oddly if places become vacant they will remain so. With parking at a premium that is nuts. But you could always drive in via the exit right?!

      Whilst I would never condone vigilantism! Why not just invite the paying public to sort out the non- paying public. Went along one lane of cars today, after an unprecedented 30 min wait for a space, and over half the cars were freebies ambsing the system. Easy for members of the public to determine who is being abusive.

  35. So Tired says:

    You all are so angry, boycott the parking lot!

    • Rhonnda aka Blue familiar says:

      I don’t think we have a choice in the matter.

    • Coolieh says:

      That’s a waste of time. Boycott the Government to fix the legislation. Simple and not expensive!

      Dah!

    • Coolieh says:

      Just read the Chief Justice’s Ruling on the 2007 Ordinance and hence why Clamping is illegal. Something to the effect that the proposed clamping was not advertised for the full required 7 days.

      Surely, any prudent judicial person would have taken into account that at the time of the ruling clamping had been in place for over 7 years? Surely, over this seven year period people had more than ample opportunity to make the assessment of clamping and it’s impact.

      Surely, a lack of clarity in this judgement; or am I just out to lunch as a non-lawyer. There is no common sense reasoning to this ruling as I see it!

      Hope I don’t appear before the Chief Justice, he’ll sentence me to 7 years in prison, without considering the 7 I’ve already served!

      Somebody add some clarity to this for me. It has to be more than this?

      Puzzled!

      • Hmmm says:

        unfortunately, you hit the nail on the head… CofH could have solved this issue by a simple advert… but NO.. Makes too much sense!!!

  36. Seascape says:

    No one is going to want to pay for all day parking on a Saturday to shop only for an hour or so.

    • Unnecessary. The mobile/parking meter was a perfectly acceptable, low cost, accurate system. No lines waiting to get out. No costly equipment or systems. Where it fails is the City’s incompetence and refusal to properly implement it.

      You ticket. You don’t pay your ticket, TCD picks it up and you can’t license your car. All that is needed is a short piece of legislation and some legislative will. More than happy to draft it for them. It’ll pass easily.

      Had hoped the new mayor would be more competent but he has fallen at the first hurdle.

      Surely someone can start a petition on this and reject it. How do businesses, shoppers, parents of young kids and babies have a say? Only the rich will be able to go to town now.

      • caitlyn says:

        Unfortunatley he inherited a mess.Have you noticed the silence of some?

      • Codfish says:

        So you want to convict a person and set a penalty without a hearing? Another shortcut to failure. Think about it.

        • Legalgal says:

          That was effectively clamping. A fine you can defend.

      • Seascape says:

        This just gives me more of a reason to avoid shopping in Hamilton and even shopping in Bermuda period.

  37. just wondering says:

    I admit I haven’t read all the comments so my apologies to those that have dealt with some of these points – here are the basic facts – the car parks are private property (belonging to the corporation) thus government traffic wardens cant ticket – the courts have said that the CoH cant clamp – despite the fact that this is the most effective way to control people who stay too long/don’t have a ticket etc – thus the CoH has to do something – this current suggestion works for them (I suspect) as it gets them some revenue for the car parks which is more than they have had for the last many months since the court decision. Those of you who don’t like it perhaps ought not to have complained about the very few who were getting clamped (which by the way many other private car parks are doing now anyway). Its a classic case of be careful what you wish for.

    • Rhonnda aka Blue familiar says:

      Let’s see.
      I didn’t have a problem with the clamping, except that it wasn’t legal.
      I pay using my easypark thing when I park in the places that require it.
      So… why exactly am I now going to be unable to find parking in Hamilton when I want to shop there?

      Leave things as they are and put the legislation through to legalise the clamping or, better yet, towing illegally parked cars.

      • Legalgal says:

        Clamping and towing is only justified when a car is parked illegally and dangerously and needs to be removed (as it’s an obstruction) or it’s been abandoned. Fines, enforced should be a sufficient deterrent.

        And ensure any new build incorporate parking as part of the planning process.

    • Scorpio says:

      How is increasing the rates to all-day going to control people? There are no mechanisms in place ( wardens, clamping) to monitor the lots, whether it be short or long-term parking.

      The most sensible solution, mentioned multiple times above, would be to implement some kind of automatic ticketing system. All this ‘solution’ will accomplish is offenders going to other city parking lots to get their free parking fix, so what then? Make every parking lot all-day?

  38. caitlyn says:

    There are car cleaners who block off parking bays with buckets,sit around yelling at everyone,are they paying for the parking bay?

  39. Kat says:

    I always park in the parking lot on front street if it’s full I wait and eventually within minutes someone pulls out. There bays are bigger for those inconsiderate drivers that open thier doors with no respect to the next car so I could care less what city hall is doing….

  40. FakeUserName says:

    that carpark should be a multi story underground parkinglot with a nice green park ontop. That way there would be enough spaces for people to park as long as they wanted to. Maybe trade that spot to the Mexican’s for Parlaville and let them develop it as such and keep most of the fees charged.

  41. UmJustSaying says:

    Maybe we should just move Bull’s Head up de hill n d odder 1 down
    der. dis will keep d shoppers happy……nowhere to go nowhere to park..

    Hamilton has become quite a s..ty

  42. Retired says:

    Corporation of Hamilton and Government need to come to tearms on this issue. Assign Traffic Wardens to the car park and split the payments. Both have sufficient Computer Geeks to launch this small project.

  43. Hmmm says:

    The biggest load of $%#@ I’ve ever heard…

    “The current absence of short term parking is due to a lack of enforcement, either by the City with clamping and the relevant City Parking Ordinance being invalidated by the Supreme Court in October 2014, or in spite of numerous requests, the traffic wardens who patrol our city streets will not enter the city’s car parks to enforce the same parking regulations.”

    So what your saying is… “It’s been 2 years and we’re too damn lazy to actually fix the law..”

    Strange part of this is the laws that cover the Cost and Time Restrictions (and pay/display & easypark) are still valid… so basically the CofH is encouraging people to park illegally