Electronic gates could soon be installed at car parks across Hamilton in a bid to stop illegal parking.

Hamilton Mayor, Sutherland Madieros estimates the city loses hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by people parking without paying.

Now in a bid to gain back some of the money he is in talks with the Attorney General to install the gates to parking lots around Hamilton.

Yesterday Mr. Madeiros also revealed that 20 clamps would soon be on the Island to catch illegally parked cars in the first step to catch the parking dodgers.

He showed off one of the clamps yesterday and expects the others to be here in the next few weeks to be used in parking lots around Hamilton.

Last night Mr. Madeiros said:”A measure we need to take is putting in electronic gates so people have to pay before they leave. The city’s revenue is being eroded so we need to deal with it.

“The first step, however, will be the clamping. The gates or clamping is not something I relish doing, but we are trying to make sure people abide by the law. This is not a money-maker, but a deterrent. We’re going to deal with it one way or another.”

Mr. Madeiros added: “We still need to set up procedures so once a car is locked, there needs to be stickers which let you know to call a number for release.

“We don’t have a contractual agreement yet with a security office to do this.”

Though details are still being hammered out, Mr. Madeiros revealed the Corporation may hire City Rangers who would clap violating cars. The Rangers would be a new office created under the Corporation of Hamilton, which the Traffic Wardens are not, though rangers would not have the power of arrest.

To unlock the clamped car, the violator would have to contact the security company and pay a fee, which has yet to be determined.

And if electronic gates are installed in the City of Hamilton parking lots such as Bull’s Head and City Hall, they would provide extra enforcement so there would not have to be follow-up on those who do not pay their parking tickets. “If we put in the electronic gates, then we don’t need to have the claps and it would be much more effective than what we have now, Mr. Madeiros added.

As an additional measure Mr. Madeiros is in talks with Attorney General Senator Phillip Perinchief to consider not allowing violators to renew their licence if there are outstanding parking violations.

Last night it was also revealed there are 8,000 unpaid fines this year alone.

Violators now have until June 30 to pay any fines they may have from between January 1 and May of this year, or face prosecution in Magistrates’ Court.

The initiative is part of a “crackdown” by a number of Government departments after the enormous amount of violators and administrative changes resulted in a breakdown of summonses for non-payment.

Working together to get tough on parking violators are, the Attorney General, Magistrates’ Court, the Ministry of Justice, the Debt Enforcement Unit, and the Department of Public Prosecutions.

Yesterday Senator Perinchief confirmed the Ministry can now identify all of the non-payment violators and it was clear that some are repeat offenders.

He added “After June 30, 2007 all persons who have not paid outstanding parking fines will be prosecuted in Magistrates’ Court.”