Only 20 objections have been raised with regard to the City of Hamilton draft plan which was released in early February, The Royal Gazette has learned.

The plan called for a revitalisation of Hamilton - encouraging people to live in the city, extending the maximum number of storeys allowed on buildings and attempting to tackle traffic problems.

On Wednesday, Environment Minister Terry Lister told The Royal Gazette the process of addressing objections was underway and he hoped to be able to bring the vetted plan to Parliament before it breaks for the Christmas holiday.

A tribunal committee was appointed to hear objections to the plan, Mr. Lister said, but before matters get to the tribunal stage technical officers in Forward Planning will look at all the submissions.

Mr. Lister said that while 20 objections had been received, the number of issues being addressed was roughly half that number as several people had raised identical concerns.

"Forward Planning go through all the applications and objections in an attempt to dislodge them," Mr. Lister said. "It may be simply technical information which is needed to satisfy the objector and clarify the situation."

Those objections that cannot be answered by Forward Planning will then go before the tribunal which consists of Dr. Kent Simmons, Zoleta Oliver and Craig Tucker.

Mr. Lister said he was uncertain whether the tribunals enquiries would be open to the public but said he expected them to start very shortly - if not this week.

But details of the public enquiries will be made public once they have been completed.

Among the objections that have been raised are concerns over the pedestrianisation of Reid Street and questions relating to how land will be used in the future.

Once the tribunal has considered the remaining objections, Mr. Lister said they will prepare a report for his consideration.

"I can accept or reject the report," he said. "Then, I will report to Parliament. I hope to have that opportunity before Parliament breaks for Christmas. That's the target I've set."

The draft is the first new plan for the city since 1984 over which time Hamilton has changed dramatically.

Planners found that the population of Hamilton has fallen dramatically over the last 50 years - three times as many people lived within the city boundaries in 1950.

As people migrated away from the centre, parking lots sprung up to accommodate their cars when they turned to commuting into the city for work.

A full tenth of the city's land area is now dedicated to parking and the office space in the city doubled between 1979 and 1996.

And the 1991 census showed that 50 percent of those commuting to Hamilton were doing so in cars with the bulk of those cars containing only one person.