The City of Hamilton has been put on notice by the Attorney-General that its free ride for parking ticket revenue is coming to an end.

Kathy Lynn Simmons told the House of Assembly during the debate over the budgeting for the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Reform that the courts had been saddled with collecting parking fine payments without getting paid.

In response, City Hall offered an olive branch with suggestions to “alleviate these woes”.

The Corporation of Hamilton also highlighted the problems of using “an obsolete, labour-intensive court computer system” in handling the fines.

Suggestions included allowing for payments directly online or at City Hall.

It came after Ms Simmons told MPs in the February 27 debate that there was “a concern that the Magistrates’ Court cashier section provides all the resources to collect parking ticket fines on behalf of the Corporation of Hamilton”.

The Attorney-General added: “These resources are funded by the Bermuda Government.

“There is no financial reimbursement by the corporation to cover the cost of collecting their fines, as 100 per cent of the fines collected are transferred directly to the Corporation of Hamilton, and it results in a loss of revenue for the Bermuda Government.”

Ms Simmons told the House that her ministry was “in the process of correcting that.”

The corporation’s reply to The Royal Gazette detailed several years of calling for collaboration on “an improved and streamlined process”.

It comes ten years after the Corporation of Hamilton moved to implement pay-and-display parking on all its roads in an effort to secure additional revenue.

But the inability of corporation staff to issue their own tickets, and a court order taking away its power to clamp vehicles, frustrated efforts to collect the cash.

A spokeswoman said that a “dramatic” change came about in 2017 with amendments to the Traffic Offences and Procedures Act 1974.

The move switched parking fine payments from the Government’s general fund to the purses of either the Corporation of Hamilton or the Corporation of St George, “depending on where the parking violation took place”.

The changes came into effect under the One Bermuda Alliance administration.

The spokeswoman added: “While the City was busy lobbying that same Government on parking matters, this was an unexpected outcome and had the potential of being a windfall.

“When the amendment came into effect in June 2017, the Corporation of Hamilton reached out to the Bermuda Government to determine how it could begin to receive the parking ticket revenue.”

But the Government said it lacked the resources to administer the payments — with the corporation offering to pay for a staff member to upload tickets to the Judicial Enforcement Management System, as well as drawing up summonses for non-payment.

The JEMS computer system, which dates back to 2007, was flagged up last year by the Supreme Court Registrar as unwieldy and in need of replacement.

The corporation said it also offered to pay for a magistrate to deal with a court solely for parking offences.

“This was declined because of the bias it may create in that court. This raises the question of how the other courts are funded.”

The spokeswoman added: “The corporation sees the need to invest in a new computer court system which would allow only one entry of the offence to then be the only entry that need be made to record the fines to be paid, summonses to be issued and served, and subsequent court appearances.”

She said that the present system required multiple inputs, leading to extra work and more chances for user error.

The spokeswoman added that the corporation had offered suggestions for “years” to automate and streamline the process to cut the costs for “all involved”.

The statement said that the existing regime was onerous to the public when it came to paying fines.

“The corporation is willing to partner with the Bermuda Government to implement a more modern parking ticket process for all and one where the magistrate’s cashier will not be the way that one can pay a parking ticket,” the spokeswoman said.

“Some of the inconveniences of the current payment scheme include having to travel into Hamilton, ironically, having to find and pay for parking, and having to surrender certain personal items due to security measures at the courts.

“Payment directly to the corporation, either through an online portal or in person at City Hall, would serve to alleviate these woes and eliminate any transfer of funds from the Bermuda Government to the corporation.”

She said that the corporation had been lobbying since 2017 for a collaborative arrangement to deal with the fines.

The corporation said it “did not write the legislation” — but was committed to come up with “a workable programme which will properly compensate the Bermuda Government, if it remains necessary, whilst at the same time improve the current inefficiencies”.

The spokeswoman added that a similar streamlining had been put into effect for the collection of wharfage fees on the rental of the docks.

The Gazette requested comment from the ministry on any alternative payment schemes under consideration, but the query was referred to the senior magistrate.