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Speaker 1: Plenty to cover with the Council of well, the City

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Speaker 1: of Darwin. CEO some Own Saunders, who joins me in

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Speaker 1: the studio, Good morning, some.

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Speaker 2: O, Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 3: Good to have you on the show.

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Speaker 1: And perfect timing because we do know that obviously the

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Speaker 1: Council has announced that an application to develop the new

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Speaker 1: Civic Center has been approved by the Development Consent Authority.

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Speaker 1: Where were there any changes or where are things at

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Speaker 1: exactly no.

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Speaker 2: Look, the initial application was deferred and it was heard

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Speaker 2: again again Friday week ago, and we got the minutes

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Speaker 2: yesterday and the confirmation and the building permit that came

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Speaker 2: out yesterday, so you know, green light for us to

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Speaker 2: move ahead with the redevelopment of the Civic Center and

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Speaker 2: the plaza.

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Speaker 1: I know there's been, you know, some pushback. There are

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Speaker 1: some people who are concerned about the development. Look, to

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Speaker 1: be fair, we haven't had a lot of pushback to

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Speaker 1: our show. We have had a few messages coming through,

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Speaker 1: people sort of going, oh, Katie, I'm a little bit

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Speaker 1: worried about it being partly privately owned, you know, partly

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Speaker 1: counsel oaned and worried about the car parking and that

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Speaker 1: kind of thing. I mean, what do you say to

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Speaker 1: those people? Did this go through a thorough enough consultation process?

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Speaker 2: Look? Absolutely, this has been going on for four years,

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Speaker 2: so numerous reports to Council on status of the current building,

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Speaker 2: potential options, and where council ended up was with a partnership.

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Speaker 2: It's not a triple P which is a public private

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Speaker 2: partnership where we're joined on actually having the commercial or

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Speaker 2: anything like that. It's where we'll build a building. Deco

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Speaker 2: will own half of the building and that will be

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Speaker 2: where they will have commercial tendencies and then City of

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Speaker 2: Darwin will own half of the building. Look, it was

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Speaker 2: interesting and I know you're at the Darwen Major Business

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Speaker 2: Group Forum the other day. You know, one of the

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Speaker 2: things that we need is enabling infrastructure in the territory

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Speaker 2: and to get that economic development, we need the public

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Speaker 2: and private working together and this is an absolute example

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Speaker 2: of that. How we'll see private investment from a local

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Speaker 2: business that will develop local jobs and invest back in

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Speaker 2: the territory. And what we're able to do with this

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Speaker 2: partnership is the cost for instance, to build the foundations,

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Speaker 2: we can defray costs and share those costs. So it's

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Speaker 2: a real great opportunity to build a building not only

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Speaker 2: for City of Darwin's needs, but to get that economic

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Speaker 2: development and drivers.

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Speaker 3: Simon, how many car parks are they going to be?

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Speaker 2: So it's per the actual application that went into the

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Speaker 2: DA there is four hundred and sixty car parks in total.

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Speaker 2: Excuse me, you're right, fifty will be owned and paid

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Speaker 2: for by DECO, so they will own and pay fifty

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Speaker 2: of them and then four hundred and ten for the

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Speaker 2: City of Darwin. So these are public car parks. Anybody

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Speaker 2: will be able to use them. But if somebody, for

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Speaker 2: instance in the office tower, are wanted to lease a space,

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Speaker 2: they would pay City of Darwin to lease that space.

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Speaker 2: It might be a quarterly or an annual permit, the

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Speaker 2: same as people lease space in Dragonfly or West Lane.

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Speaker 2: So the public car park is a revenue generator back

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Speaker 2: for the City of Darhae and it will be paid

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Speaker 2: for by the car parking reserves the City of Darwin

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Speaker 2: hold and they can only be used to invest in

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Speaker 2: car parking infrastructure. And that's exactly what the city's doing.

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Speaker 1: Now in terms of that that breakdown. I know you

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Speaker 1: touched on that a moment ago, but DECO is still

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Speaker 1: going to operate or occupy several floors, aren't they?

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Speaker 3: So how many have they got?

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Speaker 2: Correct? They've got ten floors within the building or ten

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Speaker 2: and a half within the building that they will pay for,

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Speaker 2: own and operate themselves, and then City of Darwin will

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Speaker 2: effectively have the other ten. As you can imagine, there's

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Speaker 2: some joint areas where we share plant. Where there's a plant,

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Speaker 2: there's a plant bit on the roof and a bit

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Speaker 2: on another floor. But otherwise it is it is separated.

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Speaker 2: And what happens at the end is like a body

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Speaker 2: corporate arrangement. They will own and operate their parts of

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Speaker 2: the building and we will own and operate our parts

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Speaker 2: of the building.

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Speaker 3: So just remind our listeners how much is it all costing?

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Speaker 2: So the City of Darwin part is seventy seven million

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Speaker 2: dollars that will be invested, and thirty million of that

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Speaker 2: is car park and of that seventy seven million dollars,

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Speaker 2: forty seven million dollars that's being spent is actually held

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Speaker 2: in either the car parking reserves or land reserves that

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Speaker 2: have to be invested for this new Civic center redevelopment.

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Speaker 2: So that's how it's structured.

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Speaker 1: I know some people in the community were obviously worried

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Speaker 1: about the whole you know, like the area, the whole

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Speaker 1: amenity and making sure that it is maintained and looked after.

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Speaker 1: And there were concerns as well about the Tree of Knowledge.

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Speaker 1: So what work is happening to make sure that that

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Speaker 1: is all preserved.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, so the thing with the Tree of Knowledge,

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Speaker 2: we know that the circumference, it's outgrown at space. So

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Speaker 2: if you were to try to redevelop that section of

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Speaker 2: the current civic center, you can't do it. It's encroaching on

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Speaker 2: the Tree of Knowledge. So you can't, I guess, redevelop

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Speaker 2: that part. But the good thing about this new development

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Speaker 2: we're building on the car park next door. Once the

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Speaker 2: new building is built, will decant from where we are

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Speaker 2: in the Civic Center, and then that can be all

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Speaker 2: opened up that to a public, public park and whatever

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Speaker 2: the public wants. So there will be additional consultation in

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Speaker 2: the next sort of year to eighteen months on what

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Speaker 2: does the community want to see in that plaza. It

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Speaker 2: may be that some of the facade of the current

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Speaker 2: building is maintained and then how is that plaza opened up?

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Speaker 2: And I think it's a beautiful link and'll open up

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Speaker 2: down Cavanagh Street and also next door into Civic Park,

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Speaker 2: so when we have the Darwin Festival, we'll have access

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Speaker 2: to both areas. There'll be new you know, public toilet

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Speaker 2: facilities within the new building. You'll have access to changing

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Speaker 2: places and car parking for all those sort of activities

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Speaker 2: that happen in that plaza.

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Speaker 3: So how soon is the work going to get underway?

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Speaker 2: So it will be started early dry season. So where

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Speaker 2: with the Deferral and the DCA, it's where a little

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Speaker 2: bit behind. So now that we've got those those permits,

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Speaker 2: DECO will finish the milestones, but we will see breaking

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Speaker 2: ground early early dry season.

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Speaker 1: All right, couple of other things I'm keen to ask

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Speaker 1: you about electronic billboards. I know that the Council's proposing

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Speaker 1: community and commercial advertise in billboards on City of Darwin Land.

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Speaker 1: These proposed billboards are going to be located from what

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Speaker 1: I can see, at two key entry points to the city,

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Speaker 1: with each of those billboards measuring well, measuring three meters

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Speaker 1: by nine meters. So where exactly are they proposed to

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Speaker 1: go up?

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Speaker 2: So council put out and expressions of interest in October

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Speaker 2: last year to see if anybody wanted to do billboards

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Speaker 2: within the city, and there is currently a proposal for

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Speaker 2: two locations. So one is in the gardens so where

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Speaker 2: the current out the front of Gardens Oval, there's a

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Speaker 2: current static sign that we use for different community advertising.

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Speaker 2: That is one location. And the other location is in

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Speaker 2: Barrett Park which is on the corner of Stoke Street

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Speaker 2: and coming into the city along basically the stud Highway

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Speaker 2: coming in. And the great thing about these billboards is

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Speaker 2: that not only do we get revenue for the city

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Speaker 2: from some part of the external advertising, if we were

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Speaker 2: to have an emergency within the city, we can take

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Speaker 2: over those billboards one hundred percent so to do community

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Speaker 2: updates in any sort of emergency. And then also there's

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Speaker 2: a portion of community advertising that can be done, so

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Speaker 2: all these community organizations that have to print banners for

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Speaker 2: particular community events can actually come through City of Darwin

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Speaker 2: and would request for in kind support to be able

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Speaker 2: to advertise on those banners. So that might be Darwin

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Speaker 2: Entertainment Center or sporting groups, community groups that can use those.

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Speaker 1: So there's the council pay to have them erected in

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Speaker 1: the first instance, and how much are they going.

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Speaker 2: To cost no, So with this particular proposal, there's no

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Speaker 2: the operator will install the billboards, they'll also maintain the

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Speaker 2: area around the billboard and it's actually a revenue generator

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Speaker 2: for the City of Darwin. So with the community advertising

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Speaker 2: space that will be able to be done in kind

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Speaker 2: for the community and the revenue that City of Darwin receives.

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Speaker 2: It's worth about half a million dollars a year to

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Speaker 2: the city, So further reducing the burden on our rates.

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Speaker 1: In terms of the consultation is there for the consultation

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Speaker 1: that's going to happen, because I mean some may feel

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Speaker 1: as though it is going to encroach on, particularly in

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Speaker 1: that gardens area, on what they might see as being

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Speaker 1: a beautiful green sort of space.

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Speaker 2: So there has been stakeholder letters that have gone out

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Speaker 2: to seek feedback and also resident letters which which we

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Speaker 2: see in that space. But if anybody wants to provide feedback,

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Speaker 2: you can always send that through to Day on It Darwin.

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Speaker 2: But along that stretch down at the gardens, for instance,

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Speaker 2: we've got Mindal Beach with an electronic billboard sign along

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Speaker 2: that area as well. So this would sit though at

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Speaker 2: the front of front of gardens oval on the kind

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Speaker 2: of the fork in the road there.

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Speaker 1: All right, or let our listeners have their view on

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Speaker 1: whether they think those electronic billboards are a good idea

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Speaker 1: or not. Feel free to send us a text now.

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Speaker 1: I do just want to ask you as well quickly.

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Speaker 1: We know the footbridge between Rapid Greek and Jingly Water

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Speaker 1: Gardens is set to be replaced. The replacement footbridge is

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Speaker 1: expected to be wider, as I understand it, more durable

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Speaker 1: than the current one. When is that going to be

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Speaker 1: happening and does that mean that the connectivity is going to.

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Speaker 3: Be lost for a little while?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Look absolutely why we replaced that footbridge. We're we're not

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Speaker 2: doing a repair, We're doing a complete replacement, so it

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Speaker 2: will be closed for a period of time and it

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Speaker 2: was shut as of yesterday to facilitate that upgrade. City

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Speaker 2: of Darwin did do some repair work to that footbridge

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Speaker 2: last year to get it through to this dry season,

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Speaker 2: and we have an engineering certification that had up until

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Speaker 2: the thirty first of March. It was certified up until

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Speaker 2: that point. Two weeks ago, we went back and just

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Speaker 2: checked whether there was any extension on that and unfortunately

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Speaker 2: this wet season the bridge is further deteriorated, so it

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Speaker 2: had to be closed yesterday. But we're right in the

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Speaker 2: middle of procurement and the works will start in the

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Speaker 2: next couple of months. And that we finished before the

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Speaker 2: end of the dry.

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Speaker 1: So before the end of the dry season it should

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Speaker 1: all be finished, absolutely all right, Well, Simone Saunders, we

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Speaker 1: are going to have to leave it there. City of

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Speaker 1: Darwin CEO always appreciate your time.

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Speaker 3: Thank you very much for joining us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie