Every time East Ender Mr. Darren Pitcher slides his car into a Hamilton parking spot, he realises why he doesn't come into town very often: it takes him almost as long to find a parking space in the Island's capital as it does to drive in from St. George's.

"It's a pain in the neck,'' Mr. Pitcher said as he sat in his car on Par-La-Ville Road this week.

"There's a lot of driving around just to find a spot, and this is usually as close as I can get to Reid Street.'' Mr. Pitcher is hardly alone in his frustration over parking conditions in Hamilton, where a surge in the amount of second-hand cars and a partial closing of the Bulls Head parking lot have strained both the ability of the City to provide enough spaces and the patience of those who are jockeying for spots.

"Every day is like this,'' sighed Pembroke resident Ms Anabela Ferreira as she circled the City Hall parking lot in her blue Fiat Uno.

"I just have to wait until someone pulls out.'' Added another woman as she hurried off to work on Par-La-Ville Road: "It's the pits.'' According to the dozen or so drivers who spoke to The Royal Gazette this week, the cut-off point at which Hamilton parking spaces inevitably become scarce is around 8.45 a.m.

After that, the drivers agreed, a motorist can wait and circle and search for "interminable'' amounts of time.

"I've been looking for half an hour,'' said Mrs. Jane Cooper of Devonshire.

"There's nothing on Par-La-Ville, nothing by the bus station.'' "You have to get in by a quarter to nine (in the morning),'' added Mr. Roy Childs of Southampton. "I think there's an overflow.'' Certainly the Bulls Head construction project has added more pressure to an already overloaded system.

Although the creation of the new three-storey car park will boost Hamilton's parking capacity from just over 3,500 spaces to more than 4,000, the project has also deprived the City of 186 much-needed parking spots since it was kicked off last month.

A total of 140 spaces remain at the site.

The Corporation of Hamilton has attempted to alleviate the parking crunch by adding more cycle bays on Victoria, Church, Reid and Front Streets.

Corporation Secretary Mr. Roger Sherratt also said he was currently in the process of securing alternate parking spots, though not as many as the 200 or so that have been lost at Bulls Head.

Mr. Sherratt declined to provide any further details until plans become more concrete.

Southampton motorist Mrs. Emma Mitchell, meanwhile, told The Royal Gazette that the parking crisis was symptomatic of a larger problem.

"Government has been providing Bandaid solutions,'' Mrs. Mitchell said.

"There are days I know I don't have to use my car, but I don't have a real alternative. Not enough has been done to co-ordinate buses and ferries, to encourage people to leave their cars at home.

"Places like Charleston (South Carolina) have arranged it so you don't have to use a car. We should look into something like that.'' Until that happens, or until the Bulls Head project is completed in January of 1996, motorists who want to avoid the unanimously agreed upon "headache'' of parking in Hamilton these days will have to either car-pool, use public transit or get into town a bit earlier.

"When I come to town, I try to get here by quarter to nine,'' said a woman who had obviously not done so and was waiting patiently for another car to pull out of the City Hall lot's two-hour parking zone. "You have to.'' Despite such inconveniences, however, not everyone is distressed by the recent turn of events.

"I grew up in Washington DC and have lived in San Francisco,'' a woman told The Royal Gazette on Bermudiana Road. "Parking here is a breeze.'' CIRCLE GAME -- Motorists in Hamilton spend lots of time rounding the block, looking for somewhere to tie up.