Government is committed to dissolving the Corporation of Hamilton, Mayor Charles Gosling believes.

He yesterday shared a letter with this newspaper received from Walter Roban, the Cabinet minister charged with overseeing the review of the corporations of Hamilton and St. George. The letter, received on January 26, states in part: "The Government is committed to the repeal of the Municipalities Act 1923."

It is signed by Mr. Roban.

St. George's Mayor Kenneth Bascome said the Corporation of St. George had not received a similar letter.

Minister Roban has repeatedly denied Government intends to close the two entities.

Last night Government said the letter was "consistent" with its position and insisted it would continue to work with the corporations in the future.

Mr. Gosling urged the public to support the corporations in their struggle to remain intact.

"We do have legal representation which we will certainly be engaging," he said. "One would think before going to such an extreme thing, entirely removing, eradicating or whatever words you want to throw in, there would be some vision as to what the future entails.

"To date we are waiting for the Minister's rendition of what the consultants' report is to see what the consultants' vision of the act will be."

Said a Government spokesperson: "The letter from the Minister is consistent with the Government's position with respect to the Municipalities Act 1923.

"The focus of the ongoing work, in which the corporations are fully included, is to determine what should happen thereafter," the spokesperson added without further explanation.

Confusion has surrounded the future of the corporations since Government's 2008 Throne Speech. In it their framework was described as "outdated" and criticised because it "did not reflect modern good governance".

In June 2009, Government announced it planned to reform the corporations of Hamilton and St. George by repealing the Municipalities Act 1923.

A request for proposal published in the Official Gazette said Cabinet had decided that the "most practical efficient and effective reform would be to repeal the Municipalities Act 1923 and transition the operations of the municipalities into the relevant government departments".

In January Mr. Roban announced that local firm Attride-Stirling & Woloniecki Barristers & Attorneys and the international firm of McKenna Long & Aldridge were hired as consultants to prepare a detailed review of all aspects of the municipalities.

He said the review would be completed by June and that Government would make its decision based on the findings.

Yesterday Mr. Gosling said the Government consultants had contacted the Corporation of Hamilton on January 26, asking that it reveal its assets. He said the request had been forwarded to corporation lawyers.

The Corporation of St. George received the same request, Mr. Bascome said. He added he would be meeting with Government next week and he would reserve his comments until then.

Mr. Gosling said he believed the confusion surrounding the issue had led to public indifference.

"They have given a multitude of answers here and to some extent deliberately confused the population in order to really create apathy," he said.

"The Minister came on [the television news] and said categorically they are not getting rid of the two corporations. A lot of people said: 'There corporations, you win'.

"This is something strong enough that they should commit themselves to phoning their member of Parliament, and they should speak to members of the community on this issue."

He continued: "We are going to be engaging in a PR campaign. We have an online petition.

"We also have a hard copy for those Bermudians who either are not Internet-savvy or don't want to put their information on the Internet. We do have that at City Hall.

"I don't think it's particularly fair on the taxpayer of the Island to have an increase in payroll tax to be paying for this [the consultants' report].

"We are going on business as usual. We think that it is very, very important that the capital of Bermuda is administered by an elected body."