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Speaker 1: Now Wellington, Wellington City Council might start knocking down that

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Speaker 1: ugly City to See bridge as early as Friday because

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Speaker 1: they've won a court case against the group wanting to

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Speaker 1: keep the bridge. Nikola Young is a Wellington City councilor

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Speaker 1: and with us high Nikola, Hi, do you reckon the

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Speaker 1: other lot will appeal?

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Speaker 2: Look, I don't know, but there were six councilors who opposed.

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Speaker 2: I opposed the demolition because the bridge is a much

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Speaker 2: safer way to cross State Highway One than a pedestrian crossing.

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Speaker 2: And you know, we are overwhelmed by the number of

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Speaker 2: people who are contacting us. Now I think we will.

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Speaker 2: There are ways of trying to stop it. But what

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Speaker 2: has been made very clear to me by the Chief

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Speaker 2: Executive with whom I spoke today was at the beginning

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Speaker 2: of the judicial review, the two sets of lawyers agreed

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Speaker 2: that if the council one, they would have three days

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Speaker 2: the Civic Trust would have three days to appeal. So

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Speaker 2: the council is just following the process. The officers have

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Speaker 2: the authority to enact the decision to demolish the bridge,

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Speaker 2: so it's just a matter of what we do to

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Speaker 2: try and change it. So we're looking at doing a

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Speaker 2: notice of ravocation yep, carry on, and that has to

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Speaker 2: go to the same committee, and then because we are

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Speaker 2: coming to the end of the Trianium, we'd have to

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Speaker 2: call a special meeting for it. So it's a matter

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Speaker 2: of whether we have the support for the notice of

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Speaker 2: revocation and for the extra meeting. Who knows, but we

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Speaker 2: are going to try it because the number of Wellingtonians

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Speaker 2: who want to retain the bridge, you know, like it

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Speaker 2: or putting it aside the aesthetics, it's a safety aspect.

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Speaker 2: It's a lovely way to cross over to the waterfront

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Speaker 2: rather than going through it over a pedestrian crossing.

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Speaker 1: You just ask which of these two options is cheaper

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Speaker 1: to knock the bridge down and replace it with a functional,

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Speaker 1: smaller bridge, or to keep the bridge and strengthen it.

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Speaker 2: Well, of course they're saying they'll knock it down have

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Speaker 2: a pedestrian crossing in the interim, but you know what

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Speaker 2: happens in Wellington that the pedestrian crossing will stay forever.

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Speaker 2: It's hard to say hither because you never know where

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Speaker 2: the numbers we get. Because we've been told by some

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Speaker 2: other engineers that the prices we've been quoted are far

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Speaker 2: too high. And I'm not an engineer and not a

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Speaker 2: quantity surveyor, so I wouldn't know. But we just think,

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Speaker 2: we have to think. Wellington has been full of roads

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Speaker 2: being ripped up, buildings being pulled down, road cones everywhere. Enough,

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Speaker 2: you know, let's just keep the bridge and work around it.

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Speaker 1: Brilliant Nicholas, thank you very much. I do appreciate your time.

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Speaker 1: That's Nicola Young, Wellington City councilor this is what happens

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Speaker 1: when you can no longer trust your officials, and Wellington

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Speaker 1: City Council officials have absolutely done this to themselves.

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Speaker 2: For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio