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Speaker 1: But as we know, well, the starter guns definitely fired

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Speaker 1: for local government elections with the candidates being declared on Friday,

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Speaker 1: and I'll take it through those a little later on

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Speaker 1: the show. But it does mean that the local councils

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Speaker 1: are now in care take the mode. So joining us

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Speaker 1: in the studio instead of the Lord Mayor of the

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Speaker 1: City of Darwin conbat scalas well, we've got the CEO,

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Speaker 1: Simone Saunders in the studio.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, some ode morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time. Now, Simone, from a

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Speaker 1: council's perspective, and certainly from your perspective, what does it

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Speaker 1: mean now that the council is in caretaker mode.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so we went into caretaker on Friday and that'll

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Speaker 2: last right through to the eighth of September. And what

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Speaker 2: it means is that we don't have any council meetings

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Speaker 2: during that time and councils not actually sitting to make

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Speaker 2: decisions during that time. We also won't make do any

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Speaker 2: community consultation during that time. But from an operational perspective,

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Speaker 2: it's business as usual for myself and the team.

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Speaker 1: Well, that's good to hear, and I'm sure that there's

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Speaker 1: plenty going on and I know that there is a

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Speaker 1: bit going on with Smith Street. You and I have

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Speaker 1: spoken about Smith Street on numerous occasions, as we have

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Speaker 1: with the MEA. But I understand there's going to be

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Speaker 1: some impacts on traffic and the parking which actually start today.

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Speaker 2: That's correct. We've got the next stage of the works

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Speaker 2: which will go for about two weeks and what you'll

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Speaker 2: see is one way traffic from Edmund Street to Peel

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Speaker 2: Street and also no vehicle act access between Smith and

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Speaker 2: Cearc Street. So but pedestrian access still remains open. All

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Speaker 2: the businesses in the area remain open, but there's just

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Speaker 2: some change traffic conditions and if you jump onto the

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Speaker 2: website you can have a look as well on City

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Speaker 2: of dum website with it with a map as well.

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Speaker 1: So how long are those change traffic conditions sit to

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Speaker 1: be in place.

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Speaker 2: It's approximately two weeks for the next stage and then

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Speaker 2: it'll change again for another two weeks which will be

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Speaker 2: the next stage of stage of the works. As we

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Speaker 2: move towards the end.

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Speaker 1: It does feel like there's been a lot of disruption

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Speaker 1: for those businesses on that straight look.

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Speaker 2: It has definitely had an impact on the businesses in

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Speaker 2: the area and council recognizes that it's always difficult when

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Speaker 2: we do work in the CBD, especially when we're putting

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Speaker 2: new tree pits in and it does take a bit

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Speaker 2: to you know, pull up roads. So there has been

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Speaker 2: a fair bit of infrastructure in the works that have

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Speaker 2: gone along there. Our team continue to work with the

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Speaker 2: businesses though in the area and any queries or questions

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Speaker 2: from the businesses come into the infrastructure team and they'll

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Speaker 2: talk through what's happening. And it's also in the updates

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Speaker 2: that's going out to the businesses and the community on

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Speaker 2: a weekly basis.

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Speaker 1: So might I've had a few people contact me going

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Speaker 1: what is the go with the massive rocks in the

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Speaker 1: strait on Smith Straight.

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Speaker 2: So as part of the works there, there was an

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Speaker 2: expression of interest for artwork for the area and there

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Speaker 2: was four different projects that were chosen. One of them

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Speaker 2: is and it is not it's not traffic management or

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Speaker 2: anything like that from an anti terrorist which I did here.

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Speaker 2: It's called Foundation Stone, the work of art and it's

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Speaker 2: Mount Bundy Rock And what it is is that in

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Speaker 2: Darwin we have Mount Bundee Rock is in our roads,

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Speaker 2: it's in our pavement and it builds a huge amount

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Speaker 2: of the city of Darwin, so part of it, the

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Speaker 2: geological I guess aspect of that is represented in this

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Speaker 2: piece of artwork. And it's also a micro mobility hub,

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Speaker 2: so you'll see bike cracks will be installed one side

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Speaker 2: and then there'll be a space for scooter parking on

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Speaker 2: one side as well. Once it's all finished, and they'll

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Speaker 2: have a QR code and everything about the artists and

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Speaker 2: the work.

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Speaker 1: I know, I've definitely had some people say to me,

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Speaker 1: you know, why has that gone in rather than sort

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Speaker 1: of and taking out parks.

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Speaker 2: Oh. Look, as part of the whole project, there was

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Speaker 2: the like I said, expression of interest and a panel

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Speaker 2: that went through and the artwork to be installed was

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Speaker 2: on the road, which does mean the reduction in parking,

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Speaker 2: but also it gives as part of the whole intersection there.

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Speaker 2: It'll become a shed zone almost so it'll be a

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Speaker 2: lower speed limit over that area and there's going to

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Speaker 2: be the Denise Cole's work will be on the road

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Speaker 2: there as well, so we'll really become like a slowed

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Speaker 2: focal point around that area. There's going to be more yeah,

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Speaker 2: there's no no, no, sorry, the artwork. Yeah, more artwork.

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Speaker 2: There's something called hermit hustle and it's like little crustaceans

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Speaker 2: and crabs. It will be stenseled onto the road there,

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Speaker 2: so that whole intersection it will be part of you know,

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Speaker 2: I guess a hub, hub and point of interest.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, well we'll keep an eye on that.

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Speaker 1: Keen to hear from anybody out there listening this morning,

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Speaker 1: if you've been passed there and what you're thinking so far?

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Speaker 1: Now some moon I want to ask, I understand there's

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Speaker 1: a Life with Dogs workshop that's happening. Is that tonight?

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Speaker 2: Yes, Their Life with Dogs Workshop is on Lines Community

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Speaker 2: Center tonight. It kicks off at five point thirty pm

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Speaker 2: and it's Lin's Community Center. Is a great space and

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Speaker 2: a bit of room. So we just encourage you if

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Speaker 2: you'd like to attend for that workshop, to jump onto

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Speaker 2: Poor Site K nine behavior and register for interest in

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Speaker 2: that and City of Down continues to partner with paor

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Speaker 2: site over the next few months. If you can't make

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Speaker 2: this one, we've still got the you know, be Polite,

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Speaker 2: Don't Bite and some other workshops and there's one a

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Speaker 2: month from September through through to December that the community

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Speaker 2: can attend.

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Speaker 1: And there's also a well the council is also encouraging

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Speaker 1: the community to help report sightings of stray cats. Are

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Speaker 1: they quite problematic? Stray cats?

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Speaker 2: The feral cuts in the Daar municipality are a problem,

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Speaker 2: and especially when you go out to our nature reserves,

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Speaker 2: so out around Lee Point and those other areas we

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Speaker 2: do we do have problems. So as part of getting

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Speaker 2: more data and like how of the feral cuts are

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Speaker 2: moving through the areas, there's a Feral Scan cat tracking

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Speaker 2: program and app. So we really encourage the community if

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Speaker 2: they'd like to get involved, to download the free Feral

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Speaker 2: Scan up on their phone and record the sightings in

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Speaker 2: their neighborhood of any feral cats. And this program is

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Speaker 2: running from August through to through to February and more

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Speaker 2: information on the City of Darwin website.

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Speaker 1: All Right, someone, one of the issues that we've had

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Speaker 1: a lot of people get in contact with us about

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Speaker 1: is and we did speak to the Lord Mayor about

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Speaker 1: is the council looking at Nakara Oval due to those

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Speaker 1: issues with parking. Now we've been told by convat Scalas

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Speaker 1: that there was going to be alternatives considered to the

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Speaker 1: Nakara Oval due to those issues with parking. Is there

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Speaker 1: an update on that situation?

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Speaker 2: Yeap. My understanding is we've got another three to four

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Speaker 2: weeks of the soccer and the junior season. But it's great.

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Speaker 2: We have had an uptake as understand in interest in

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Speaker 2: soccer and football in the NT which is really good.

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Speaker 2: So one of the challenges we have without having lighting

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Speaker 2: on certain ovals and we need more. We need more

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Speaker 2: lighting on ovals. It means we often have you know,

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Speaker 2: costers of games together, which suits obviously families and also volunteers.

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Speaker 2: But Nakara oval has been problematic. There's only a limited

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Speaker 2: amount of parking there and what we're doing is working

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Speaker 2: with football and Tea and we had a meeting with

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Speaker 2: them last week. We can look at maybe some additional

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Speaker 2: line marking so that people are really clear where they

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Speaker 2: can park, and additional signing not to park on the verge.

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Speaker 2: But overall with that, in the past three years, over

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Speaker 2: all the ovals City of Darwin's actually only issued thirty

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Speaker 2: six fines.

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Speaker 1: Well those thirty six people have been pissed.

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Speaker 2: I know, but it was a cluster at Nakara of

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Speaker 2: fourteen fines issued, which is probably when a lot of

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Speaker 2: feedback came through the show, but rangers had been around

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Speaker 2: every weekend warning and you know, educating, educating people. And

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Speaker 2: what we did find the people that did receive fines

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Speaker 2: were sometimes sitting in their car on their phone, engine

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Speaker 2: running and they were asked to move and they didn't

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Speaker 2: want to move. So the rangers have to issue fines

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Speaker 2: under the Traffic Act and regulations in that. So educative

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Speaker 2: process is always the way that we go, and we'll

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Speaker 2: work with football and Tea so that they can help

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Speaker 2: educate their members as well.

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Speaker 1: So are we talking people parking on the virgin in

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Speaker 1: driveways or are we talking people parking on the dirt

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Speaker 1: and grass area that's there.

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Speaker 2: Yep. So the areas when we say virgin driveways, areas

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Speaker 2: around the oval still have significant infrastructure in place, so

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Speaker 2: there's irrigation in those and there's also tree route protection

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Speaker 2: and damage zone. So for all the ovals, there's a

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Speaker 2: protection zone around the outside of the oval and you

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Speaker 2: can't park up up on the verge adjacent to the

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Speaker 2: oval because it does it does cause issues. So we

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Speaker 2: really encourage people in the Kara, for instance, have a

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Speaker 2: look at what other streets are available and you might

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Speaker 2: have to walk you know, five minutes to get the

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Speaker 2: kids in there. But we really encourage that.

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Speaker 1: So well the Council consider not making those fourteen people

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Speaker 1: that got fined actually pay.

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Speaker 2: They have to under legislation. So there's no even discretion

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Speaker 2: for myself that under those by laws when those fines

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Speaker 2: have been issued in under the Traffic Act, they've been

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Speaker 2: in fringe for parking illegally, so they will need to

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Speaker 2: be paid those fines unless there was an alternative reason,

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Speaker 2: and that would just go straight through the normal the normal.

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Speaker 1: So you consident that like that what the Council is

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Speaker 1: doing now with you know, with football and the going

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Speaker 1: to be able to find a solution because there's such

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Speaker 1: a huge take up of kids playing soccer and I

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Speaker 1: know that it may be you know, it might be

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Speaker 1: annoying if you live in that area, particularly if someone

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Speaker 1: parks in your driveway, but the last thing we want

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Speaker 1: is for families not taking their kids to those wonderful

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Speaker 1: sports and involved in those sports. And you know yourself,

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Speaker 1: it can be an absolute juggle to try and get

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Speaker 1: your kids there on time and to try and get

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Speaker 1: them in there. You think you're parking in the right space,

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Speaker 1: and then something like that happens, I'd be quite upset.

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Speaker 2: I think though with the well Definitely from an educative perspective,

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Speaker 2: Nakara is more challenging because there's no other areas around,

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Speaker 2: whereas Malac there's the Watersword multi Generational Recreational Space which

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Speaker 2: is going in behind and there'll be additional parking there,

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Speaker 2: and Malac has also got adjacent parking Fanny Bay. Also

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Speaker 2: for next season, we need to have a look at

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Speaker 2: where we can get additional parking because there is it

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Speaker 2: is shorter parking, but I think Katie that if you're

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Speaker 2: parking blocking a driveway, we also the other We have

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Speaker 2: a lot of neighbors that actually ring in and complain

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Speaker 2: about people parking illegally and either blocking line of sites

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Speaker 2: which can be really really dangerous for safety of the kids,

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Speaker 2: or blocking driveways. So, like I said this, over three years,

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Speaker 2: it's only been thirty six infringement and it really has

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Speaker 2: been where somebody's been told they're parked illegally and they've refused.

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Speaker 1: To move or unfortunately we've run out of time so

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Speaker 1: we are going to have to leave it there. Someone

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Speaker 1: has just messaged on and said Katie, if people park

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Speaker 1: on the grass, that will become do it carpool. Look,

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Speaker 1: there's others messaging through as well about those fines, so

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Speaker 1: we'll continue to talk about that after ten. Simone Saunders,

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Speaker 1: CEO of the City of Darwin, thanks so much for

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Speaker 1: your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie,