The Corporation of Hamilton is expected to soon seek tender bids for a terminal operator's licence for Hamilton Docks, and hopes to have a new contract agreed to by the end of the year.

By then, a new long term agreement will have been delayed for an entire year, as the Corporation has considered wording changes to the new contract.

On June 30, the City renewed for six months Stevedoring Services Ltd.'s exclusive licence to operate the port.

Corporation of Hamilton secretary Roger Sherratt said it was the second six-month extension of the original multi-year contract.

"The normal term of such a contract is five years,'' Mr. Sherratt said. "We are just in the process of reviewing a new contract. The Corporation is looking at the terms of the contract. We had some issues that we wanted to resolve before we put it out to tender again.

"The fact that we are making changes has nothing to do with Stevedoring Services. It has no reflection on the company, at all. But there will be changes in the wording of the new contract.'' The contract had initially had a life span to the beginning of the year, but was extended by six months to the end of June, and subsequently for a further six month period to the end of the year.

"The current contract is expected to expire at the end of the year and well before that, it will go out to tender in the normal way. It's quite a major contract and it will have to go out to tender fairly soon, so that we could start the new contract from the start of the year.'' Mr. Sherratt suggested that bids could be invited within two months and the contract is likely to run again for five years.

He described the proposed changes to the contract wording as having a technical nature and having arisen out of the Barbera Report, written by American consultant Joseph Barbera in 1992.

But he said the City felt they were important matters which needed to be refined considering the lengthy period for which the contract is awarded.