It will take three years to replace Hamilton's traffic lights, it emerged at a Corporation of Hamilton Town Hall meeting last night.

The meeting, held at the Heritage Worship Centre and attended by approximately 50 people, provided a forum for residents to discuss safety, infrastructure, vagrancy and sanitation in the City.

Secretary for the Corporation of Hamilton, Ed Benevides answered questions, took suggestions and addressed concerns raised during the meeting.

And according to Mr. Benevides, Hamilton's network of traffic lights are in "dire need of an update".

"The traffic lights in Hamilton are so outdated that we cannot even order new parts for them," he said. "In fact when parts need to be fixed, we are forced to send them abroad to get them repaired rather than just replacing them."

He added that the long wait for the return of parts was the reason why the four-way traffic lights at the junction of Dundonald and Court Streets had been out of order for months.

"We have put a plan in place to replace all of the traffic lights in Hamilton," said Mr. Benevides. "But because we are constrained to doing the work mostly on Sundays to avoid major traffic problems, we expect that it will take three years before they are all replaced."

Security was voiced as a major concern by many of those attending the meeting. A Court Street business owner suggested several ways to address rising crime and violence in the area including a more advanced system of security cameras than the one currently in place.

"Why not install a CCTV camera system in the area that could be monitored by invalids or people unable to do other work," he suggested. "These people could surely do thorough job monitoring the cameras and would add something to their lives – a job that they could be proud of."

Several residents of North Hamilton said they were "fed-up" with the amount of garbage that is dumped in their area, especially around Tills Hill. Residents also requested that parking laws be more thoroughly be enforced. They claimed that their parking areas, for which they hold permits, were often filled by others. They say complaints to the Police and the Corporation of Hamilton have been largely ignored.

Mayor Charles Gosling said the meeting went well.

"There is lots of work to be done as evidenced by the four pages of notes that I took," he said. "There were lots of good ideas and some no-brainers that we should have already thought of. I hope that as a result of this meeting we will be able to get things done and show rather than having to resort to more meetings.

"I was glad to see that there were more solutions offered than issues brought up and it was great that it was attended mostly by people who live in the city and the areas that we are concerned about."