Holmes, Williams and Purvey has issued a public apology after commuters found spaces at Bull's Head car park blocked by 120 of their vehicles yesterday.

One motorist fumed: "When I turned up for work this morning I couldn't get in. There were cars backed up for yards.

"I had to park at City hall and pay double the price.'' Other drivers persevered but were only able to find space on the top floor where they were lashed by the driving rain.

HWP president Jonathan Brewin explained that the cars had been moved there late on Monday afternoon to avoid storm damage.

He said: "There were a number of cars delivered to the dock on Monday.

"To assist the docks and as a precautionary measure against wind and flood damage we put them on the second floor and ground floor of the Bull's Head car park.

"They are all insured but we didn't want to run the risk damaging the vehicles.

"We didn't want to move them in the rush hour traffic because it would get in the way of traffic flow.'' A team of 25 started moving them at 9.30 a.m. and we were done by 10.20 a.m.

However, the timing annoyed motorists. One told The Royal Gazette : "It's unfair for normal commuters to be inconvenienced because of this firm.

"Why didn't they move them first thing in the morning before everybody came to work?'' Corporation of Hamilton secretary Roger Sherratt said the company had paid the $3 fee for each of the cars.

"HWP called saying they were very worried about flood damage as their outdoor car park at Mill's Creek is very low lying,'' Mr. Sherratt said.

"They asked to use Bull's Head car park and we agreed as we normally have around 100 spare spaces each day.

"The problem was that it was raining so there were more drivers, and people who would like to have parked on the middle level had to go to the top and they got wet.'' A suspected lightning strike fried the phone network at Holmes, Williams and Purvey.

Mr. Brewin said the entire system will now have to be replaced.

"Ironically it happened before the storm,'' he said. "We came in on Monday and found the chip had been destroyed. We think it was damaged by lightning on Friday night.'' The system was out over Monday and Tuesday and was still having problems late yesterday afternoon.