Motorists will have to pay almost twice as much to park on the streets of Hamilton within the next few weeks.

The City Corporation is raising on-street parking vouchers from $1 to $1.75 an hour, with booklets increasing from $10 to $17.50.

Mayor of Hamilton Sutherland Madeiros explained the move was to encourage more utilisation of the city's car parks and to free up space for merchants.

He added that barriers may also soon be installed on pay-and-display car parks to catch out ticket cheats.

"We are trying to make it more expensive to park on the street than in the car park. We think that will assist the merchants and ease congestion," said Mr. Madeiros.

"The car parking structure was a little bit out of line because it was cheaper to park on the street than in the car parks, and I don't think that exists anywhere. We have one of the cheapest on-street parking charges anywhere in comparison to other world cities."

He admitted many city car parks suffered from full capacity, adding: "The reason why the car parks are full is because there are a lot of abuses in Corporation of Hamilton car parks.

"We are now looking at parking control gates to ensure people pay for the period. It's an expensive proposition and we wouldn't do it all at once, but perhaps try it at Bull's Head or City Hall to start with."

The parking fee increase will become effective with the next delivery of parking voucher books – expected in the next few weeks. However, motorists will be given time to use up their old vouchers before the new ones are phased in.

"We will let the old ones run out," said Mr. Madeiros.

"We hope that the increase in on-street parking charges will encourage more people to use the city car parks in order to ease congestion on the streets.

This follows the traffic management directive in the City of Hamilton Plan and we encourage people to take advantage of the car parks that are dispersed around the city, all of which are less costly."

The costs of city pay-and-display car parks, such as Bull's Head, Bull's Head North, Laffan and Elliot Streets, will remain the same at $5 per day but free on Saturdays. Pay-and-display car parks at No. 7, No. 8, Cavendish and King Street will still be $1 per hour, and City Hall, Par-la-Ville, No. 1 and No. 5 car parks will remain at $1.25 per hour.