The Corporation of Hamilton is to develop a strategy to improve the way it communicates internally and externally, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

The idea, according to common councillors Kathryn Gibbons and Graeme Outerbridge, is to improve the flow of information out of the Corporation and give people a better understanding of its activities.

The decision comes after The Royal Gazette's A Right to Know: Giving People Power campaign, called for Government departments and publicly funded bodies like the Corporation to be more transparent and accountable.

Last month, The Royal Gazette asked Mayor Sutherland Madeiros if members of the 213-year-old body would consider opening up its meetings and publishing minutes. He agreed to put the topic on the table for discussion.

Mr. Outerbridge said yesterday he now expected members to vote on that issue. And he said this newspaper had played its part in members' decision to expand the remit of the Corporation's legislative committee to include communications.

"I think the Press does (play a part) and your actual activism and putting this under your reporting scope is helping a lot," he said.

"It has to be remembered that councillors really don't have the power until they get the momentum going with other members; it's the aldermen who have the power of the vote," he said, adding that he believed the latter were "generally on-side" with the idea.

Mr. Outerbridge explained that legislative committee chairman Mrs. Gibbons, who has decades of experience in public relations, journalism and advertising, took the initiative.

"It's something I have supported," he said. "We have got to manage our communications better. I think you'll find a lot more information coming forward in the near future."

Mrs. Gibbons said a string of negative headlines about the Corporation since the start of the year — including many regarding its now on-hold decision to evict Bermuda Society of Arts (BSoA) from City Hall and internal wranglings — had "disappointed" members.

"I think a number of us have felt that, recently anyway, the Corporation has suffered from a lack of communication, not only with the public but also with taxpayers and our internal staff."

She added: "What we have agreed to do as members of the legislative and communications committee is to create a communications plan which will include strategies and tactics for improving our ability to communicate with our various audiences."

Mr. Outerbridge — who revealed earlier this month that members were in secret talks about how to get the Mayor to resign — said yesterday that members were now "trying to work out some of those differences".

On voting in favour of evicting BSoA to free up space for offices, he said: "I had my feeling about the arts but I had to put that aside and look at what was best.

"I saw it not as looking out for the arts of Bermuda but as a member of the Corporation looking out for the welfare and accommodation of workers at the Corporation. People deserve good working conditions and that wasn't being met."