Public be warned: it is not only unfair to attempt to reserve your own parking space days before next week?s Bermuda Day parade, it could be an offence.

The Corporation of Hamilton said last night that defacing Corporation property ? for example, by spray-painting a sign on the sidewalk that says you have reserved that spot for yourself ? is an offence and those who commit it will be prosecuted.

The Corporation was reacting to news that someone ? presumably a Smith ? has spray-painted a section of the sidewalk on Cavendish Road, announcing it is ?Reserved? for ?Smith?. That, the Corporation said yesterday, is an offence and the culprits will be dealt with if they can be identified.

The only loophole comes with attempting to reserve a spot in a public park. Yesterday Acting Parks Director Martin Brown said that if Parks discovers something that someone has left to mark a spot (for example, at the Arboretum in preparation for the May 24 parade) then a message will be fixed at that spot warning that the culprit has 24 hours to remove whatever they have left behind. That means that if they leave something to mark their spot the day before the parade, they could get away with it, he said. Leaving something days in advance, however, is a different story. The Corporation, on the other hand, has no such 24-hour grace period, and anyone caught defacing Corporation property will be dealt with, a spokeswoman said yesterday.