In these days of sky-high construction costs, it may be that spending $340,000 to carve out 15 parking spaces for MPs out of what's left of the Sessions House grounds isn't a lot of money.

According to one of the other bidders for the job, the winning contractor submitted the third lowest bid and it may well be that there were other good reasons why it got the contract.

The broader problem is why the parking lot, which was approved by the House of Assembly last year, is being built at all.

Apparently, there are 52 spaces available around the House of Assembly and Supreme Court building, and there are 58 people entitled to use them. However, this does not include parking for prison staff bringing inmates to Supreme Court for trial, which makes parking on the "hill" a little more crowded.

Now, certainly this must be a bit of an inconvenience for those MPs who find themselves without a spot when they roll into Hamilton for their Friday sessions.

Join the club. Everyone knows that parking in Hamilton is a nightmare. Mere mortals pay for the privilege of parking at one of the Corporation parking lots and walk to work, or pay large amounts of money to park in private parking lots. Others ride their bikes to work ... or take public transport, just as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and London Mayor Ken Livingston do. What makes Bermuda's MPs so special?

That's not to say that MPs don't have a hard job. Receiving phone calls at all hours of the day and night, being accosted by voters on the street and in the supermarket and representing and helping their constituents is hard and time-consuming, especially while many MPs are holding down another job as well.

But they are paid for this work, and they went into it with their eyes open.

At some point, the justifications for the perks and privileges MPs receive has to be drawn, and this should have been it.

There is a risk that MPs will lose touch with the challenges that their constituents face. It is no secret that parking in Hamilton is a disaster that is getting worse every day. But providing MPs with more parking is not the solution. Expanding public transport, using public transport, ride-sharing and the like are. And MPs should lead by example by making use of them.

This is especially true when they are not required to be at the House for more one day a week except when the Budget is debated. And that does not include the breaks. For example, the House finished last week and will not now return until early November.

In the meantime, a slice of green in Hamilton has been lost forever. Even without the $340,000 price tag, that's a high price to pay for a little added convenience for our elected representatives.