by Corporation of Hamilton Secretary Roger Sherratt .

Dear Dr. James, I am writing on behalf of Mayor Lawson Mapp to acknowledge and thank you for your letter of March 8 regarding your concerns about parking and traffic congestion problems in Hamilton. Unfortunately, the Mayor is off the Island at the moment and has asked me to respond to your letter.

You are clearly concerned about the new City of Hamilton Plan, which has been produced by the Department of Planning in cooperation with the Corporation of Hamilton, and is the first ever City Plan which has sought to address the ever increasing problems of traffic flow and traffic congestion in Hamilton. The Plan outlines a series of long term objectives designed to provide for the most efficient management and circulation of traffic in the City, and these include recommendations to minimise non-essential traffic in the City centre, encourage the use of alternative, more sustainable modes of transport to the car, and improve the pedestrian environment taking into particular account the access needs of the less mobile.

The Corporation is acutely aware of the need to provide as much parking as possible in the City, both for commuters and shoppers. Contrary to the suggestion in your letter, the Corporation has actually provided more parking for cars rather than less in recent years, but it has also strived to support retailers and businesses in the City by increasing the amount of short term parking for shoppers, especially in the City centre car parks This trend is likely to continue.

You also mentioned in your letter that the City should provide effective and efficient transport into the City, and an express lane for "city transportation''. As you are no doubt aware, the Corporation has absolutely no authority outside the City of Hamilton. It has no say in the number of cars imported to the Island, and has no control over the public transportation system, although the Corporation is liaising with Government on the creation of a national transportation strategy. On the issue of express lanes for City traffic, this is a practical solution in many countries with multi-lane highways leading into and out of cities, but here in Bermuda all of the roads leading into the City are two-way (with the exception of a stretch of East Broadway), that is, one lane in and one lane out. It is impossible to create an express lane on these roads unless Government commits many, many millions of dollars to widen existing roads and that will mean purchasing property from hundreds of homes running immediately adjacent to the main highways in order to carry out the necessary road widening. Is this the way forward? Yes, the Corporation can seek to build more multi-storey car parks, but there is a view that in the long term this will only exacerbate our congestion problems rather than solving them. The Plan recommends that we look towards "alternative, more sustainable modes of transport to the car by limiting (not eliminating) the supply of new parking''.

The new City of Hamilton Plan is, at this point, a draft document intended to set a course for the City during the next decade, with the management and control of traffic in Hamilton being just one of the many issues it addresses.

May I suggest that you obtain a copy from either the Planning Department or from City Hall if you have not already done so. If you disagree with its contents you are invited to make your objections known to the Department of Planning by the deadline of April 6, at which time all objections will be carefully considered before the City Plan is submitted for approval by Parliament.

In the meantime, please be assured that the Mayor and Members of the Corporation are aware of the difficulties encountered by commuters such as yourself who face the daily frustrations of trying to park in Hamilton. The Corporation will continue to do whatever is possible to manage the City's traffic and congestion problems within the confines of having far too many vehicles on Bermuda's roads -- at last count some 27,000 four-wheeled vehicles and 25,000 two-wheeled vehicles -- totalling well in excess of 50,000 vehicles or close to one motor vehicle for every man, woman and child on the Island -- and a very small City in which to accommodate them.

ROGER J. SHERRATT Secretary Corporation of Hamilton N.B. You correctly point out that the Mayor and Members of the Corporation can park in a parking area at the rear of City Hall. This is, in fact, the one benefit they enjoy as elected officials of the City who remain unpaid. Perhaps I can point out, however, that this privilege is not extended to parking on the street without vouchers. Even the Mayor has to use vouchers to park in the City centre -- the only exceptions being the Governor, and the Premier when travelling in their official cars.

Morgan's Point questions March 12, 2001 Dear Sir, Just a brief note...would anyone in the esteemed Ministry of "Development'' and Opportunity care to let the public know what the current status (non??!) of the progress, development plans and estimated completion date of BEAM/King's Point Ltd's application to develop the area known as Morgan's Point? Their exclusivity period was due to expire, as read from a report quite some time ago in The Royal Gazette . From what I have read in the newspaper there have been a variety of different exclusivity periods extended ad nauseum, by the Government, not necessarily BLDC. Perhaps the Minister would like to bring the public up to date considering they are supposed to be a "clear and transparent government''! What's happening... anything, something...nothing? ASKARI Pembroke Irresponsible reporting March 6, 2001 Dear Sir, I am writing in response to your article "More questions than answers in waterfront `suicide' drama'' published on February 16 written by Stephen Breen. I am deeply disturbed that you would print an article that includes inferences of a Police cover-up and subsequent denial based on hearsay from a questionable source. For the record, the article is plagued with misstatements of fact and inaccurate inferences. The Police responded quickly to the scene and answered all of your paper's questions honestly.

Your paper attempted to contact the tourists who are indirectly quoted, and they refused to speak to your reporter due to the fact that they did not find this incident to be newsworthy, yet you used their names to try to lend credibility to the story.

On an Island of this size where rumours circulate quickly, you have a responsibility to the individuals and the families of those who you implicate to verify your facts. If we can expect this level of journalistic responsibility and gossip mongering to continue, I would suggest that you change your paper's name to the Bermuda Enquirer or the Royal Mirror.

JEFF CALLAHAN Hamilton Parish Editor's Note: Few decisions are more difficult for journalists to make than whether or not to report on suicides. The Royal Gazette's policy is not to do so unless it is in the public interest. This may occur if the victim is a public figure or if the act itself was a public one; for example, if it took place in a public place or drew unusual public attention. In the story referred to above, the incident took place in a public place and a reliable source indicated that the cause may have been an attempted suicide. We never named the victim, thus protecting his identity. As the writer says, we did attempt to contact the visitors; they did not refuse to speak to us -- they never returned our calls. It should also be noted that a subsequent story showed that the man was not in fact in a suicidal state, contradicting what he had told the visitors and what they subsequently related to the source who got in touch with The Royal Gazette .

Looking for leadership March 9, 2001 Dear Sir, From its inception, I have disagreed with the PLP hierarchy regarding its priorities. I believed that addressing the racial issues should have been its priority since racism was our greatest social challenge. They adamantly disagreed and therefore refused, despite the perception of most in the black community. They chose working class issues as their priority. Since their election the hierarchy has made it clear that they have no time, space or place for someone with my views and concerns.

This weekend the response of the union leaders and black construction workers to the "pro-active initiatives'' of the Minister of Works and Engineering seem to suggest that they do not seem to believe that "working class issues'' have a priority either. The "pro-active initiative'' to pay employers to obey the law and hire qualified Bermudians is really quite incredible! If they pay employers sufficient then CURE's recent efforts seem quite unnecessary. What employer would not hire a qualified Bermudian if he is going to be well paid for it? We all knew that the personal values and vision of a former Premier was to inspire young black men to acquire as much money for themselves as possible.

He succeeded in inspiring a number of young Blacks to reach for this goal because he was consistent in propagating it and we all frequently heard him on this issue in one way and another.

What are the values and what is the vision of our current Premier? What have we heard? I am very curious to know who has been inspired by her to do what? EVA N. HODGSON Crawl Bermudians for sale March 10, 2001 Dear Sir, Mr. Burgess, Mr. Butler and Mr. Burrows should be highly commended for their stand against selling Bermudian Labour.

Prescription for full employment: Education, training, hard work, attitude and a good solid work ethic.

Alex Scott should be ashamed to place Bermudian pride on such an altar -- slavery full circle! DIANA WILLIAMS Pembroke I would not have moved March 5, 2001 Dear Sir, Saturday's newspaper (March 3) was a real eye opener. Mr. Simons, you are a better person then I am. I would not have moved. If the Premier and her party were not happy where they were seated, why did they not move? I would have looked at the maitre d' and said "no thank you, we are comfortable here and the Le Figaro Maitre d' would have waited until the cat or cow jumped over the moon, I still would not have moved.

MARGARET Devonshire Right next time? February 26, 2001 Dear Sir, In 1998 I came in for a good deal of kidding for forecasting a narrow victory for the UBP (a party that I left in 1989) because "its the economy, stupid''.

Well, just maybe, I was one election out in any prediction.

COLIN BENBOW Paget